Last of My Kind
by Shadowgeist1204
Summary: Star is an abused teen with the ability to see spirits, the future, and even into people's minds. She's from an powerful, yet heavily prejudiced race from the Shadow Realm. Ending up in the world of Yugioh Zexal, she has to help people with her powers. But as some are out there to have her head, she must learn how and who to trust. *I don't own Yugioh Zexal; just my OC.
1. When They Found Me

" **Star** **!** " Mom calls out angrily, "Go do your chores or _no food for you_!"

 _Not good_ , I thought in a panic, _if I don't get to eat, this is_ not _going to be a good day for me_. I had to be quick because I can tell that when Mom says 'no food for you,' she's not going to feed me _at all_ today. I have to get the dirty clothes to the washer fast. Then wash the dishes in that boiling, bleached water without any gloves. If I'm lucky , I'll make it in time for my lessons without taking too many hits. If not, I'm going to starve today at another failure racing against the clock.

I raced to the laundry room and stuck all the dirty clothes into it. _All right, laundry done, next the dishes,_ I check off in my mental checklist.

I raced off to the kitchen to be welcomed by a steamy sink full of dirty dishes. The dishes are a lot harder than the laundry, especially that torturous hot water my mom makes me wash them in. I raced over to it, but felt a hit on the back of my head. I turned to see my mother standing next to me, murder in her blood-red eyes, and her fan in hand.

"Thought you could escape your chores, Star," she sneered. I quickly shook my head and got to work.

I manage to do all the dishes, but now my hands are both burnt and rubbed raw. Even worse, the clock says I'm too late. I already got hit in the head from Mom's folding fan, but with Dad, I have more trouble to deal with. I'll have to hurry if I don't want him to bring his pocketknife!

Now, I have to get to the abandoned apartment for my "discipline" lessons. All of which being that I dodge my father's crop and/or blade. Unfortunately this is one of those days when Dad _does_ bring his knife. I have to make sure that he doesn't get too close, so I never look into his eyes, with irises just as red as my mother's. If I do that again, I'll get yet another scar on my face; I don't need that again. As I desperately dodge one weapon, he comes down with the other.

I kept up my survival instincts until all of the "lessons" were over. I managed to get out of there in one piece, but now I have nine - maybe ten? - new scars on my midsection. I drag myself to the bathroom to treat the new wounds I have. I gingerly brush disinfectant onto each wound with a cotton ball, cringing when it stung. If whip scars were treatable, I wouldn't have so many scars as I do. But everybody knows that marks from a whip never disappear, so there's nothing I can do.

Man, I wish I could live somewhere that I don't have to worry about my parents. I know this isn't exactly their own fault. If the incident never happened the night before December 13, my birthday, Dad's eyes would still be green, and my Mom's eyes purple. I haven't been able to feel their souls for a long eight years now. I've had to take all of this torment ever since I turned eight. Now I'm sixteen and still trying to hold on. I only have a little bit of free time when I go shopping for them once a week. Fortunately, it's Sunday, when I do go shopping.

There has been one good thing, I had no tormenting visions today. If I had one, I would have wasted time recovering and wouldn't have gotten as lucky. So, in my usual street clothes, consisting of a pitch black turtleneck and pair of leggings, I head off. Now that I'm outside on the street, the only bad thing is bad thoughts coming from people. Hopefully I will be out of that madhouse once and for all. And maybe or maybe not find what exactly happened to them, and hopefully cure it.

I had everything I needed for the shopping trip. All of the cloth bags from the house to carry the items were in my right hand. My left hand held my mother's ID and the money to pay for the food. I was already getting pretty close to the store, even though I was tired. Good thing I lived in a city where I didn't have to walk far. It was quiet as usual out on the normally busy street. But with my strength I couldn't be able to hold for long. If I could make it with this shopping trip, I would have survived another day.

I went into the store with the money my mother gave me and the bags. I walked up to the pre-order clerk, Ms. Allora, with the money and Mom's ID. Ms. Allora handed me the groceries, asking, "Did Marina give you another hard week, Star?" I only nodded in reply at the only friend I had in this city as I placed all of the groceries into the bags. I turned to leave, as I thought, _You're the only one who knows my secret around here, Ms. Allora. And I trust you to keep it that way; don't let me down_ _._ As I left out the door, I saw the silver moon shining in the sky. I like to imagine the moon as my real mother, looking down at me. So mouthing a wish to the approaching night sky - _"Please take me somewhere that I'll be safe," -_ I made my way to my parents' house.

As I was walking home, I began to feel really weak and stumbled a lot. There was also something that was going wrong with my vision: everything was starting to blur into a weird light hole. Could it be that I was too exhausted to go any further? Did that also explain that bright light I was seeing? I wasn't able stand up straight because I was so weak, and I went down on my knees on the ground. The light started to overpower me in a silent, yet blinding explosion. Then everything, at the speed of light, turned black.

When I woke up, I saw I wasn't in the middle of the city where I lived anymore. But when I looked toward the tallest tower, seeing the giant heart on top, I realized where I was. I recognized the city from one of my favorite TV shows back from when I was little. I was actually in Heartland City; I was in the world of Yugioh Zexal!

I couldn't believe I was in Yugioh Zexal; I was finally free! I also was able to, at the very least, stand up again, leaning on a building for support. I was on the roadside of Heartland City, and it was nighttime. I looked around for a little, until I felt someone's mind in a nearby alley. I froze in place, finding that the mind was that of a boy named Vetrix. _A Shadow Roamer in Heartland City, eh,_ I heard from his mind. _Her face seems rather familiar from my exploration with Kazuma and Doctor Faker._ _Her power will prove useful to me in my quest for revenge against Faker._

I suddenly saw a ghostly image of a little girl in a lavender dress with short sleeves. The girl looked like she was only eleven years old, and her face was hidden. Then, a pale, scarred face with deep green eyes was uncovered, previously concealed by a black curtain of hair. With a jolt of surprise I realized who it was: the girl was **me** from when I was eleven! _But how could he know me?_

I stood in shock as I looked in Vetrix's direction, but I became focused on something else as I heard some vehicle coming up the street. The vehicle looked like a motorcycle, with a driver about my age. Taking off his helmet and getting off the ride, I saw his dark purple hair and navy blue eyes. He looked at me thinking, _this girl doesn't seem to be from around here. She even seems a little tired with the way she's standing. Even her ribs are sticking out of her chest, which I know aren't supposed to do that. And is that a scar I see on her face?_

I was about to walk up to him to explain myself, even though I knew I was mute, and have been since I was eight. But the moment I took a step, my foot shot in the opposite direction, strength abandoning me. I collapsed exhausted from my injuries and hunger, but the boy caught me before falling. All I heard was him saying "Don't worry. You'll be all right with me," as everything faded to black again.

* * *

(?) I managed to catch the girl before she hit the ground, but now where could I bring her? Should I bring her over to the hospital? That would be the right thing to do in this kind of scenario.

 ** _Shark,_** I heard a voice call in my head. In my mind's eye, I could see my Black Ray Lancer standing in front of me.  
 _What do you want, Lancer?_ I asked the Dark-attribute Beast-warrior.

 _ **Don't bring her to the hospital, Shark.**_ the duel monster replied, _ **bring her to your old home**_.

 _And why should I?_

 _**Because there are people who want the girl for her capabilities; you must protect her.**_

 _Well, that beats trying to find Vetrix in the middle of the night._

I reluctantly complied and took my runner's sidecar and spare helmet from the storage compartment. I put the helmet on the girl, placed her in the sidecar and buckled her in. Her head weakly slumped forward, leaning against the seat belt. Then I put my helmet back on and got back on my runner.

I slowly drove off to the mansion my sister and I used to live in. It doesn't seem to have changed much, other than the ivy going up and down the walls. I gently removed the girl and carried her inside the old, abandoned house. I went into one of the guest rooms and tucked her into the bed. I also got some clothes my sister couldn't stand. After putting them on the dresser, I left a note at her bedside, and some food in the kitchen for when she woke up. Finally, I left the house to prepare for the WDC finals.

* * *

(Star Dreaming) _I was lying down motionlessly weak in a large mansion. There was Vetrix and three other boys in the room, and the three were all brothers. Vetrix was lying next to me with his metal mask, who surprisingly was the father, thinking, **soon this girl and her entire people will be gone, and her powers will be all mine. I'm surprised that one of the Shadow Roamers would be able to survive to her age. It's even harder to believe how strong her powers are. But soon they will disappear into thin air. Then none of these people will bother me again.** The other three boys, however, didn't look so eager for this. In fact, they all looked like they knew something their father either didn't know, or actually knew and didn't accept._

 _As Vetrix and I were suddenly hovering above the crimson symbol on the ground, I felt power pulsing in me, like a time bomb. I knew it was going to explode, like what happened in my old suburb. I began to struggle as large chain-like bindings tied me and Vetrix together. The pulses sped up, and the brothers seemed to know what was going to happen. "We must get out of here!" the tallest of the trio shouted, and he and the other two dashed out the door. The moment they left, my eyes flew open with a painful shriek as my powers called on **Shadow Surge** , and exploded in a pale purplish-blue inferno._

 _When the dust cleared up, I was lying on the floor, and Vetrix was lying motionless off to the side. The Shadow Surge drained all of my energy, and I couldn't move. The others came back in, awestruck at the scene before them._

 _"I warned you of what would happen, Vetrix," I chided softly. "You should've known you would not be able to restrain my...*groan*... devastating power. And for that, and your ignorance... you paid the price."_


	2. I Knew I Was Safe

(Star)I woke up with a slight headache to the morning sun. I found myself in a guest room of some mansion, but it wasn't the one from my vision, thankfully. Since it was morning, I got up and found some other clothes on the dresser. I got dressed in a purple long-sleeved shirt and dark blue leggings.

I heard no voices in the entire house, and there wasn't any minds in the house, either. But at my bedside, there was this note that was probably from the boy who brought me here. I read the note to get whatever info I could. This is what it said:

 _In case I'm not at my house when you wake up, this should tell you enough about me for now. My name is Reginald "Shark" Kastle, age 14. I'm participating in the World Duel Carnival in Heartland City. If I'm not here, then I'm over at the Heartland Dueling stadium in the tournament finals. However, I left you some food out in the kitchen for when you wake up._

 _If you're wondering why I didn't bring you to the hospital, blame my duel monster, Black Ray Lancer. For whatever reason, he told me not to bring you there. I don't have a clue about why he didn't want me to though, so don't bother asking. Anyway, when I see you again, I'll tell you more._

I was a little surprised that the boy had a name like Shark. It must've been some sort of moniker, from his dueling deck, I suppose? So, I went downstairs and found some food on the table. I ate what I wanted and threw out the trash after. For some reason, a strange indigo mist made a duel set appear on my body: d-pad, deck, case, and belt. All of the gear was indigo, and the d-pad had a strange shape, like a crystal shard. The deck already had plenty of cards for a well-made Dark-attribute Dragon/Spellcaster deck. In the front of the extra deck, there was an Xyz card with a picture of a misty, indigo dragon with silver, pupil-less eyes. The card's name said, "Yinlong". As I held the card, I heard a slight, feminine roar from the card. Shrugging it off and putting the card back into the case, I put on some black slip on shoes and silently left the house.

* * *

Wandering through the town, I tried to get my bearings of this city. I can't remember much of the show, given my time away from it. But I soon came across another mansion, the one from my vision. I was in the shadow of the large mansion. I looked up to the top of the mansion, but started to to feel a dull throb working its way up my spine. Once it got to the back of my neck, pain seared through my head, with images flashing in front of me. I went down on my knees as I saw two boys standing on the top of a nearby building. Not far away, I was standing on the same building, talking to the two of them. The sun was too bright for me to see their faces, but from where I was standing, they didn't seem to pose a threat.

The vision faded back to me kneeling on the ground, shaking. I quickly shook off the vision that took me by surprise and looked back at the mansion. Something was telling me to go inside. I walked deeper into the building's shadow, and next thing I knew, I was in the mansion's second floor.

I was in a large, shadowed room with three beds at the center. Inside each bed was a boy in PJs, and if I remembered correctly, they were the boys from last night's vision. They were all unconscious, with no sign of waking up anytime soon. I approached the bed on the right, in which laid the oldest of the trio. I gingerly brushed at his bangs; and where I touched him, light filled the entire room. Within mere seconds, everything was enveloped in pale blue light, and not long after...

* * *

I was suddenly standing in some kind of room, with the same boy I touched, fully clothed, standing in front of me. Both of us had a side in the room; his was a blue-walled bedroom, mine was what was once my room in the suburb. I was suddenly full of wisdom I didn't know I had. This wisdom made me realize that this was a mind-meeting, a telepathic connection created when two similar souls meet. The boy opened his eyes, revealing royal blue irises. He then looked me over with his eyes, clearly suspicious of a stranger before him.

 ** _You seem rather familiar. Who might you be?,_** he inquired curiously. I may have been mute, but somehow we could still communicate via telepathy.

 _My name is Star,_ I told in reply, feeling my memories show behind my back.

 ** _I am Quinton,_** the long, silver-haired male told me. I looked through Quinton's memories, seeing his entire backstory as they filled every wall of the room. Several familiar scenes flashed in front of me, along with a familiar secret.

 _I know that isn't your true name,_ I told him with a slight glare, _it is Christopher._

The eldest brother looked rather startled that I knew his real name. _**How do you know that**_ ** _?_** he asked in shock.

I coolly replied, _I have powers, Quinton, as do you._

 _I know things of your family that even you don't know. For instance, the fact that your father wishes to take my powers. However, he refuses to accept that there's a good chance that his plan will prove suicidal._

 ** _What is that supposed to mean?_**

 **** _Multiple times, people like your father have tried to get their hands on the powers of my kind, the Shadow Roamers. But more often than not, the targeted Shadow Roamer was the only one to make it out alive._

I remember many news stories of situations as such in my old suburban home. Every time someone so much as tried to take a Shadow Roamer's powers, an explosion of "unknown origin" killed the thief. No doubt Quinton saw all of the stories in my side of this mind-meeting room.

 _We truly aren't unlike each other, Quinton. In the topic of what our parents put us through your case is no different from mine. In terms of the powers we both possess, we see each other as equals. I wish to see that your two younger brothers also view me as such._

 _There is also one more thing I would like to show you._ I showed a vision that I remember having when I was little. It was what could've happened if this "Dr. Faker" didn't betray the Arclight family. It was a very gentle scene. Quinton was mentoring his former pupil, Kite, on a couch in a living room. Kite's younger brother Hart was back from the kitchen with the youngest brother, Trey. Quattro, the middle brother, was just looking out the window, but he had no scar on his face. All the while, their father - what he used to look like - was happily watching over the whole scene. It didn't take words to tell him, _If nothing bad happened back then,_ this _is how it would be now._

 _By the way,_ I asked, _why aren't you able to wake up?_

 _ **My crest has drained every bit of strength that I had to help my father. But now I see he has become utterly heartless; undoubtedly my brother Quattro thinks the same.**_

 __ _I see why; the middle child is often seen as the most resentful of the brood, but is also most resilient in the end. Not only that, but like me, none of you have felt love for a long time now._

At this point, both Quinton and I began to feel the room begin to fade. _It is time for both of us to go now, Quinton. But before we do, promise me that you won't forget me. And be kind to my people, for we aren't what you believe. All right?_

 _ **Yes, I promise I'll remember you.**_

 __ _Good, then until we meet again..._ and with that, we turned and left the mind-meeting, and both went back to reality.

* * *

I opened my eyes to find myself back in the room where I first got into the house. I was glad that I found someone who could understand me in this city. But I didn't want to risk being seen when I still needed to get my voice back. I also couldn't leave these comatose boys unprotected and at their father's mercy. So I concentrated on the entire room's perimeter. I visualized a barrier going up and down every opening, firmly sealing off the crest of the boys' father. As soon as I concentrated hard enough, words appeared in my head: _**Shadow Seal**_. Not long after, a thin, purple-blue veil of light covered the walls, forming a shield around the room and doorway.

I figured that me and the boys were safe for now, but I still wanted to stand guard just in case. I went over to one of the high ledges in the room that I could climb up to, and sat up there. The entire place was awfully quiet. At that point I decided to do something I hadn't done since I was little. I closed my eyes and opened my mouth... and I sang.

 _"I remember tears streaming down your face when I said, 'I'll never let you go'; when all those shadows almost killed your light; I remember you said, 'don't leave me here alone'; but all that's dead and gone and past tonight._

 _"Just close your eyes, the sun is going down; you'll be alright, no one can hurt you now; come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound._

 _"Don't you dare look out your window, darling everything's on fire; the war outside our door keeps raging on; hold on to this lullaby; even when the music's gone, gone._

 _"Just close your eyes, the sun is going down; you'll be alright, no one can hurt you now; come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound._

 _"Just close your eyes; you'll be alright; come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound..."_

I was amazed that at myself for once again being able to sing. But that joy was short-lived when I started to hear something roaring just down the hall. I leaped down from the ledge and silently dashed to the entrance to see what was causing the noise. I peeked out to see a large duel monster with a crest on its head and a purple 69 printed on its left horn. I recognized this monster from Quinton's memories; his father's ace monster, Number 69: Heraldry Crest. That monster feeds off of anger from people, and Vetrix seemed to be looking for his own sons' resentment.

Strangely, Heraldry Crest, as large and loud as it was, didn't seem to be attracting any outside attention. That must have meant either the walls were thicker than I thought, or he was a duel spirit and no one could see or hear him other than me. And judging by it being translucent, my guess would be the latter. I slowly backed into the room, into the safety of my **Shadow Seal**. But the grunts and growls from Heraldry Crest just kept getting closer. And things only got worse when it attacked the barrier.

The moment the monster clawed at the barrier, I started to feel violent slashing pain in my back and sides. I screamed in pain every time its claws and the shield connected. I knew it wouldn't hold for long, so I used my powers to create a portal, sending the brothers back to their rooms. Just like before, words appeared in my mind: _**Shadow Gateway**_.

As soon as the three disappeared into the portal, I turned back to the Heraldry Crest, who had used Dark Matter Demolition to destroy the seal. I focused my power, and suddenly I was holding a lightweight, indigo spear. The two of us dashed toward each other, me holding my spear straight out in front of me, 69 with its claws bared. I speedily dodged its claws, and with a single leap, skewered it with the spear. But the force of the following explosion forcefully knocked me to the floor of the room. Heraldry Crest was gone, but my spear disappeared, and I was on the floor, without the strength to get up.

* * *

I began to hear three voices from just down the hall.

"Help," I managed to call out weakly, "Is anyone out there?"

Whoever was out there, they must have heard me, because of the running sounds that followed. I was able to hear three different minds not far away, all were boys. One was quiet and gentle, and in a state of shock that I was here. Another was stunned with a slight amount of curiosity. Finally, the last one was bursting with upset emotion and recognition: Quinton.

"Star!" I heard Quinton's voice call in anguish, along with more running. I heard him fall to his knees right next to me, full of sorrow in his mind. I could feel warm hands turning me to my back, lifting my upper body as I placed my head on his shoulder. Another hand brushed my bangs, uncovering my half-open eyes. But none of them expected a long scar from when I was ten that went over my left eye and under my right which was also unveiled.

Lying in his arms, I could feel Quinton's thoughts working a mile per second. At his present speed, he was easily able to figure out what happened. He realized I sent the three of them to their rooms with the Shadow Gateway spell. Then I could face off against Heraldry Crest without worrying about them. He was also able to tell that there was an explosion that carved a 69-shaped trench into the floor. And said explosion was the reason why I wasn't able to move.

"You saved my brothers and me from our father," I heard Quinton whisper to me, "Didn't you, Star?"

I gathered up my strength to whisper, "Yes," in reply. I saw the glint of tears in the silver-haired male's eyes as he smiled at me. I softly smiled at him and his two younger brothers, who I know are Quattro and Trey. I started to feel myself drifting off to sleep again. Before I passed out completely, I heard his voice whisper, "Thank you, Star."


	3. They Thanked Me

(Quinton) I slowly opened my eyes finding myself back in my own room. I wondered how I got here when I remembered what had happened. I met a little girl named Star and promised to remember her and be kind to her people, the Shadow Roamers. She must have used some sort of spell to send me here. After getting up, and getting dressed, I went to check on my brothers.

I walked up to Quattro's cream-colored door with gold lining, my shoes tapping at the tiled floor. I knocked at the door five times to show it was me, and heard a yawn and a moaning voice, "What do you want?"

I smiled secretly, as Quattro was acting like this was little more than a bad morning.

"Can you come out?" I asked through the door. I heard another yawn through the door with another moaning reply, "All right, I'm coming."

I patiently waited for Quattro to get ready. When he was, he opened the door with a sleepy expression. I gestured for him to follow, and we both went to Trey's room. Once the two of us were at the pale red door with dark red lining, I knocked five times at Trey's door. Trey, already dressed, opened his door rubbing his eyes. Clearly he woke up before Quattro or even I did. "Morning," he said tiredly.

Just then, we all heard somebody weakly calling for help from the largest room. My brothers and I rushed to the room, and what we saw shocked us. An enormous 69 was carved into the whole floor, with lines a foot thick. Objects were strewn all over the edges, as if something exploded in there. But what was in the center of the room made our breath catch in our throats. For there, lying on her side, with long, black hair fanned out behind her back, was Star's near-unconscious form.

"Star!" I shouted, running up to where she laid, my brothers in close pursuit. Promptly upset, I fell to my knees next to her fragile, emaciated frame. My brothers gathered around us both, clearly shocked at me knowing this girl. I gently turned her until she was lying on her back, her skin cold to the touch. I lifted her upper body as her head fell to my shoulder. Just by holding her, I finally realized just how visible her ribs were. I silently brushed her bangs out of the way, revealing her half-closed, jaded-green eyes. But there was also a scar that ran over her right eye and under the left.

I could already tell what had happened in here just by looking at the scene. And Star must have used a spell to send us to our rooms to ensure our safety from it. The 69 carved in the floor clearly indicated the presence of Heraldry Crest. The reason for everything in the room being scattered mainly on the perimeter meant that there was an explosion. I quickly followed the threads, easily getting the story: Star sent us to our rooms and faced off against our father's Number card, but the explosion that it caused carved into the floor and left her too weak to move on her own.

"You saved me and my brothers from our father, didn't you Star?" I asked in a whisper.

"Yes," she slowly rasped in reply. I smiled down at her, tears coming into my eyes. She seemed happy herself that the three of us were awake. In a relieved state, she slowly closed her eyes. Before she was completely unconscious, I whispered to her, "Thank you, Star."

* * *

"Brother," Trey inquired as he looked over Star, "How do you know this girl?"

That question made my mind wander to when I first saw her hovering in that space. Her ankle-length, midnight black hair formed a veil that wafted over her unnaturally thin body. Behind that veil was a pair of deep green eyes, jaded by years of trauma and poor treatment. And there were these marks on her body that glowed pale blue, some with a purple tint. I suddenly remembered that those weren't just marks; they were _scars._

"Hey, bro," Quattro said, snapping his fingers at me, "How do you know her?"

I snapped out of my daze and gently picked her up bridal style. I carried her into a spare room in the house, placing her in the bed. All the while my brothers followed me, and stayed even after I sat down at Star's bedside. As soon as Star was tucked in, I told them about her.

"The girl's name is Star," I began, "She is a Shadow Roamer with a fair amount of power. Somehow, while we were asleep, she got inside the house. I think that while she was looking us over, she touched me. When Star did so, I found myself, and her, in a magic space. In that space, we were able to see each other's memories, and use telepathy.  
"While we were in that space, Star told me what could happen if Vetrix tried to take her powers. Anyone who attempted to steal magic of her level would get caught in an explosion. That will happen if our father puts his plan into motion. He refuses to accept the fact that his plan could prove suicidal.

"Judging by the look of the room in which we found her, Star has shown what her people, the Shadow Roamers, truly are. I have a guess that at first she used a barrier to protect all of us. But the barrier proved not to be enough to stop what was coming. And I'm sure that the 69 carved in the floor explains what came: Heraldry Crest. I believe that Star used a portal to send us back to our rooms. She cared about us enough not to leave us at our father's mercy. Star even faced off against the Number; in our place, and by herself."

All the while, I was carefully caressing the girl's forehead, slowing down whenever I touched the scar. The scar looked a fair amount like a slash from some sort of blade. As I finished explaining, I heard Trey gasp at something, and he was looking at Star. I followed his gaze to find an old scar making a long arc up her left shoulder and neck. The scar was jagged and deep, as if a sharp object was thrown at her. What's more, it wasn't far from a critical artery in her neck. Not to mention that other scar planted diagonally between her eyes. Who knows how many scars Star conceals?

"She was abused," Trey whispered with his hand over his mouth, "Wasn't she?" I sadly nodded in reply, tracing the scar on her neck with a light finger. My other hand slipped under and gently clasped her own thin right hand. As I held her hand, I noticed how long and sharp her nails were. They were surprisingly well cared for, and appeared to be a good weapon for her whenever necessary. The girl was sleeping soundly in the warmth of the bed in which she was laying. Her breathing was steady and calm, even though her hand was cold and fragile.

Suddenly Quattro looked down and picked up a piece of paper from near his feet. He read through it silently, with Trey and me waiting patiently for his response. His eyes widened as he finished the note and turned it so we could see it. All he was able to say was, "It's from Shark."

* * *

It's been three days and Star still hasn't awoken yet. We've already told Shark about her, but he couldn't visit because of injuries from battling Dr. Faker. Our father also returned, but he doesn't want to take Star's powers anymore. Perhaps what Star foresaw was what would happen if our father won against Yuma, and he actually lost, thus losing his lust for power.

We've already had the Tenjo brothers come and visit Star. Kite seemed very intrigued at how much I cared for her. "I see you've taken a shine to this Star girl, Quinton," he mused while they visited, "But why?"

I was also rather confused at why I have grown fond of her. My silver hair and blue eyes were of stark contrast to her own black tresses and jade-like orbs. But for some reason, she feels very familiar to me, as if I've seen her before.

I kept looking at the black strands that shed from her dark veil. I remembered something back from when my brothers and I were growing up. We kept finding small, black "threads" on the floor, in a secluded corner of our living room every night. And I kept catching glimpses of a little girl out of the corner of my eye. Could Star be the same girl from all that time ago? If so, than she might know us far better than we know her.

Hopefully, when Star gets back to normal, we're going to introduce her to everyone properly. Yuma and Astral would most definitely welcome her to the group. But others of Yuma's friends might be rather skeptical until they know her more. All that we can do at the moment is wait for her to get better. Though, given Star's past and present condition, that may prove difficult.

In the middle of the night, I was holding Star's hand, sitting at her bedside. Then Star began to toss around, suddenly clutching my hand and whimpering in fear. I could feel that she was in a nightmare, though I don't know exactly how. All I know is that frightful scenes of being attacked by a switchblade, a cat-of-nine-tails, and a glass bottle rushed through my head. That must've been where she got the worst of her scars. I could easily believe what I saw of the glass bottle being thrown at her shoulder. I also can easily imagine a blade to the face could cause the scar that Star covers with her hair. I only see one scenario of why I haven't found a trace from the militant whip, and that I'd rather not figure out just yet. I remember feeling the deep grooves in Star's back when I held her, but I do not wish to know for sure until another time.

I placed my free hand on top of her head, feeling my warm hand on Star's warmed skin. I started to gently stroke her bangs and forehead. This appeared to work in calming her down, and she slowly relaxed and settled down. I silently ran my hand through her hair, smiling as she leaned into my touch. Afterward I rested my head beside hers on my arm and fell asleep.

The next day, I was still sitting there, waiting for her to wake. I was fond of the silence, and Star still slept peacefully in her bed. I listened to her quiet, even breathing that sounded completely free of fear. It relieved me a bit to know that she was safe from whatever abuse she was forced to endure. I was starting to doze a little, when I jerked awake at a weak female voice: "Where... where am I?"


	4. I Remembered Old Friends

(Star) I woke up to feel myself lying on something soft and surrounded in warmth. It was so warm and comforting that for once I felt I didn't have to be afraid. I slightly opened my eyes to see someone sitting next to me. I could only see his silhouette, but I could feel his hand on mine. He seemed to be nodding off, judging by his fading mind, and didn't notice I was awake. "Where... where am I?" I managed to whisper, causing him to jerk awake.

As he lifted his head, I was able to see his face in the better lighting. The tall, silver-haired boy looked down at me with a look of relief. _Finally awake,_ his thoughts sighed contentedly, and I suddenly remembered who he was.

"Quinton?" I quietly asked him as soon as I recognized him. He slowly nodded and brushed back my bangs, slowly tracing the scar on my face. I got myself to sit up in my bed as he left the room I was in.

When Quinton came back to my room, he brought his two younger brothers with him. I noticed that Trey was holding a tray of food for me. But I saw someone else's mind coming, and my suspicions were confirmed when Vetrix also came through the door. I tensed up, but after scanning him, I realized that he was lacking the malice I once saw in him. As I ate the food that Trey brought me, I heard the thoughts that came from all four boys.

 _What's the deal that_ Shark _of all people was the first one she saw around here? It was probably by chance; at least, I hope so. I really hope that he forgives me for what I did to Rio. But with Star, those are some nasty scars that she has, especially the ones on her face and neck._

 _I just can't get around the fact that someone like her can contain so much magic. She's hardly older than_ I _am, and yet she can control powers even stronger than that of all our combined strength! How is she able to do it? And what is the cost of withholding such power?_

 _I feel so deeply connected to her, and it's so difficult to believe that we've hardly known each other. She feels so familiar, yet so new to me. That mind-meeting we had must have caused that connection. But just how deep can this connection go?_

 _What could make Star so familiar to me? Was_ she _the girl that I remember seeing from the portal exploration? She truly does resembles that little "phantom girl" feature for feature. But it simply can't be her, can it?_

I was pretty curious about this "phantom girl," Vetrix kept talking about, mostly because she looks so much like me. As soon as I finished the food, Trey took care of the plate. When he came back, I finally remembered what had happened five years ago. I began to feel a slight buzzing in my head, with Quinton asking worriedly, "Star, what is going on right now?"

Without my command, my powers caused a lavender flash as I heard, _ **Umbral Reveal**_.

* * *

(Flashback) I was standing in a large mansion's living room, hiding in a shady corner. I watched two boys playing with a white greyhound, with another one sitting on the couch off to the side. I was only ten years old at the time when I found out how to phantomize. The two younger brothers looked like they were having so much fun together. I wish I could've said the same for myself, though. My parents' souls have vanished for two years, and they've become nothing short of demonic to me. Now, my knee-length black hair is the only way to cover my scars.

Even though a warm fire crackled in the nearby hearth, I shivered in my light lavender dress that trailed to my knees. I lightly traced the deep scars on my neck and face, wishing that my parents were still the same. I gazed at the boys with longing in my deep eyes as I watched them play. I could feel the joy in their minds and the peace in their hearts. Soon the two younger boys grew tired and went to the couch, falling asleep around their older brother. Afterwards I turned around and disappeared into the shadows, leaving a long, shed strand of my hair behind me.

* * *

A wind rushed, and I was suddenly standing on the edge of a chasm, now eleven, with a similar dress, and a lot more scars. My tangled, black hair reached my ankles, and so did my dress. The weirdest difference was my feet weren't touching the ground. There was a helicopter that landed close to the entrance, and four people walked out: three adult men and a fifteen-year-old boy. One of the men told him, "You'd better stay here, Chris. I'll go on with Dr. Faker and Kazuma."

The teenager, who must have been his son, smiled and answered, "Good luck."

I silently followed the three men in their exploration with surprising ease. Nothing and no one could touch me, although some could see me. I would walk just behind their camp, getting a sense of their personal lives and mindsets. Kazuma Tsukumo was adventurous and friendly, and cared deeply for his wife, daughter, and young son. Byron Arclight was gentle, kind, and held great affection for his three sons that I always saw. Dr. Faker, however, withheld deep worry for his two sons, covered in a thick facade of obsession, alongside a dangerous aura that I'd rather avoid. I was worried for Mr. Tsukumo and Mr. Arclight, and carefully watched Dr. Faker's tent, when I heard, _..."Deliver two souls for mysteries untold"... Two souls, huh..._

My stomach dropped at the final thought: Dr. Faker plans to use his "comrades" to open the portal! I turned back to the campfire, but I saw it was out, with Mr. Arclight climbing into his tent. Now I wouldn't even be able to tell him about this. So, I disappeared into the night, and went searching for the location.

I was able to go on ahead of the men, reaching the location first. I found it was a sacred Shadow Roamer location that kept out all Roamers other than the Great Mother. Regular mortals weren't affected by this seal, and apparently neither was I. Within the two days it took for the men to catch up, I figured out every trap in the area, and was ready to face Dr. Faker.

From the moment they walked in, Dr. Faker's malicious thoughts flared even more than ever. "Gentlemen," Mr. Arclight told his companions, "I think we found what we're seeking."

Meanwhile, Faker studied the ancient ruins, confirming that they found the inter-dimensional portal. But I used my power to trigger a trap from an engraved stone tile under his foot. The runes glowed crimson, but Mr. Tsukumo threw himself and Dr. Faker out from under a stone block. _Darn, I missed!_

I kept following the explorers down a staircase.

"Whoever built this place didn't want trespassers," Mr. Tsukumo commented. Soon enough, Mr. Tsukumo and Mr. Arclight were at the top of a large pedestal.

"Looks like we reached a dead end," Mr. Arclight figured, "Should we go back?" Just when he stepped back, unfamiliar runes beneath their feet glowed blood red, and shot electricity at them.

"Gentlemen," Dr. Faker smirked, "The time has finally come. Believe me, I regret that there is no other way." He began to explain everything that he found out, the other two men realizing his plans of betrayal. The staircase to the top of the pedestal crumbled, and Mr. Arclight began to fall into the deadly glow beneath him!

 _Mr. Arclight; Mr. Tsukumo!_ My mind shouted as they barely held themselves up. Mr. Arclight wanted him to let go and save himself, but Mr. Tsukumo considered him a friend, and so did I. I tried to use my power to bring them to safety, but only got a red zap as I heard a cackling voice in my head. _**You aren't getting**_ **these** ** _two, you little brat!_**

 ****All I could do was helplessly call out to them as they fell into the vortex.

The moment after they fell in, I turned and sped out of the cave, using a Shadow Gateway to teleport back to the Arclight mansion. Chris was sitting inside the helicopter, waiting, and I quickly rushed up to him, much to his surprise. "What is it, little one?" he asked, looking rather scared.

 _Your father and Mr. Tsukumo were betrayed by Dr. Faker and fell into a vortex._ I told him with my telepathy. _You cannot trust him anymore, Chris; I see danger in that man's mind._ I saw his upset and shocked expression, and the whole thing faded away...

* * *

(Star) Yet another flash came up and I was back in the room like it never happened. I turned to look at the boys, finding each of them having a similar thought, but different expression. They looked either freaked out, overwhelmed, shocked, or even ashamed. But all four of them shared the same exact thought: _I can't believe it was_ her _._

"All that time," Trey told, "And none of us figured out what or who left those black strands." I saw it in all of them: none of them knew that I'd visit them every night since I figured out how. Vetrix only caught a few glimpses of me during the portal expedition five years ago. But what I showed of my mind-reading and telepathy slightly confused them, but it didn't take long for them to figure it out.

"Hang on!" Quattro blurted out suddenly, "You can read minds?!" I lightly winced at his shouting and panic stream.

"Yes, and I can see spirits, and the future."

The moment after I said it, all four of them gasped in shock and fright. Quattro was about to panic, but luckily Trey clamped a hand over his mouth before he could go crazy.

"Actually," Trey considered, "That does seem to explain a few things." Quattro stopped himself to consider. _That pipsqueak has a point,_ his head grumbled.

"That is correct, Trey," Quinton commented, "That would explain her deep gaze. Also the fact that she faced off against Number 69 without causing a ruckus. Not to mention her vision of what would've happened if our father attempted stealing Star's powers."

* * *

I managed to get all of my strength back after a few more days... More like a week or two?... All right, fine! I was there for two months while I was recovering.

"I should probably try to find Shark," I told all of them. They all nodded in understanding, as they knew he was the first person I saw. There were also some other people that I was hoping to meet, like this Yuma and Astral from Trey's memory. Same with Kite and his little brother Hart that Quinton used to take care of. They left me be so I could change into my new clothes: a blue long-sleeved shirt, a purple vest, and black leggings.

I packed up a few sets of clothes for when I find a place to stay. I got my duel belt with all of my gear, and before I left, I gave them something. I held out my hand focusing my power, causing three small, different colored gems to appear in my palm.

"They're called moon shards," I explained, "miniature moon globes that royal Shadow Roamers can create. Use them wisely." After that, I placed them into Quinton's hand, told them goodbye, and headed off.

To avoid any trouble on the ground, I traveled on the rooftops and kept a close watch down below. I was scanning for a familiar face or familiar mind, and I soon found Shark's mind. He was walking with a group of people around his age. Alongside him was someone who looked like whatever I could grasp about Yuma and Astral. Leading the pack were Shark's younger twin sister Rio and Yuma's old friend, Tori. In the middle row was Yuma's buddy Bronk, along with "Ray Shadows." I found Ray is masquerading as Yuma's fanboy, and he's actually a seriously bad dude named Vector. _Just great,_ another _facade,_ I thought to myself, _I'll have to be careful around him._

I climbed down a ladder on the building I was watching from, slipping into a shadowed alley. I took a deep breath, and slid out from the alley, getting their attention.

"Hey, it's you," Shark said, "The girl I found on the road before the WDC finals." _But she looks a heck of a lot better than when I first found her when she collapsed. I know that Quattro's older brother's taken a shine to her. But I just hope he hasn't talked any trash about me or Rio._

"Don't worry, Shark," I told him softly, "If anything, Quattro's quite relieved that Rio's back on her feet."

"Yuma," I heard the ghost behind Yuma ask, "I sense strong power from this girl. Yet she doesn't appear to be from Astral or Barian, but something much older and stronger than both. Where do her origins lie, I wonder."

Yuma just glared at him saying back, "Astral, how am I supposed to know anything about magic?"

I looked full at Astral, "The powers of Shadow Roamers like me originate in the Shadow Realm. And," I added, "A word of advice: don't think aloud." Everyone was staring at me, and Astral looked rather shocked. "What?" I asked everyone, "Am I not supposed to be able to see him or something?"

"Of course you shouldn't be able to see him!" Yuma exclaimed in my face. I pushed him away by his head, signifying personal space. Astral sighed Yuma's name before turning to me to ask, "What is your name?"

I calmly replied, "My name is Star, and I'm the last of my kind."

Just then, Rio froze in her tracks when I saw a small kitten that got into her line of sight. She hurriedly rushed behind Shark's back, calling, "Cat, cat, cat!" I laughed a little at the fact that she was scared of a kitten. Rio explained, "I know it's weird, but they give me the heebie-jeebies. Reginald, I need you to get rid of it now!"

"I thought you said you don't need my help, Rio." He replied snidely.

"She's cute when she's terrified," Bronk commented with a love-struck sigh, causing me and Tori to sweatdrop. All Rio did afterward was scream until the cat took off, but then another girl followed by a "teenage" cat walked out of an alley. The girl had teal eyes and gray hair fashioned into cat ears, introducing herself as Cathy Katherine.

"This one I found on the streets not too long ago," she told us, gesturing to the cat. The young, slender female had midnight-black fur with green eyes. She walked with a slight limp, and her eyes were dull.

"Star," Tori commented, "She looks a lot like you."

I nodded in reply, and quietly approached the feline. The cat didn't hiss, slit its eyes, or try to fight at all even when I was right in front of it. I reached down and gently picked it up, and it didn't struggle.

"I think I'll call her... Shadow," I said, stroking her head.


	5. And Made New Ones

I decided to spend the night at Cathy's place, which was more of an abandoned cat mansion. The house had cats practically everywhere, and Cathy's feline posse was very welcoming. Shadow and I felt at ease with the fact that they understood us and accepted us. It seemed that Cathy's second in command was an easy-going female Russian blue with a gold tail-ring. Cathy herself was very sweet to me, and we were sitting on the balcony having some tea. The moon was beautiful and glowed with its familiar, soothing silver light.

"Star," Cathy asked kindly, "Do you know how to sing?" I nodded, taking a small sip.

"Can you sing for us?" she asked. I nodded again, and sang a song that I thought described Cathy and me.

 _"I never had that many friends growing up, so I learned to be okay; with just me, just me, just me, just me; and I'll be fine on the outside._

 _"I like to eat in school by myself anyway; so I'll just stay right here, right here, right here, right here; and I'll be fine on the outside._

 _"So I just sit in my room, after hours with the moon; and think of who knows my name; would you cry if I died, would you remember my face?_

 _"So I left home, I packed up and I moved, faraway; from my past one day; and I laughed, I laughed, I laughed, I laughed; I sound fine on the outside._

 _"Oh oh oh oh(5x);_

 _"Sometimes I feel lost; sometimes I'm confused; sometimes I find that I'm not alright; and I cry, and I cry, and I cry._

 _"Oh oh oh oh(5x);_

 _"So I just sit in my room, after hours with the moon; and think of who knows my name; would you cry if I died, would you remember my face?"_

By the time I finished the song, all of the cats were sitting around me with flowing tails. I suppose the cats must've liked the song for them to just sit and listen to me. Cathy applauded with delight, saying and thinking, "That was a wonderful song, Star."

I smiled at her compliment, taking another sip. After we finished, we cleaned up and I slept on the couch.

* * *

The next day, Cathy and the rest of Yuma's friends had to go to school. But since I wasn't enrolled, I couldn't go with, which I was fine with. People would probably figure me to be older than I was because of my height. Truth be told, I am actually just about as tall as - if not taller than - Quattro is; pretty tall for my age.

I was out wandering the city's district area where Heartland Academy was located. I walked over to just outside the first-year's area when I saw a boy slam right into Tori. I could tell from his mind that he was a Barian named Alito. But from where I was standing, other Barians might not have been as bad as they claimed. He probably didn't even hear himself when he said, "I must be dreaming," causing me to face-palm.

After school was over, I followed Alito to this place called the BARian. He was having a chat with another much bigger Barian named Girag. Alito said "love at first sight" just happened to him, causing Girag to spit his food out in surprise. Alito added that he was going to "win her heart with my classic 'counter' strategy." My thoughts on the matter: _doubtful._

* * *

The next day, I kept an eye on Alito from where he couldn't see me. He showed Tori a giant bouquet of red roses. He relayed some sort of technique in his head. _Step one: start by turning up the heat. Then counter your first impression by playing it cool._ Unfortunately, he was in the route of Bronk and Yuma's regular daily race to school. Bronk used his skateboard to jump over Alito, Tori, and two other girls shouting, "Heads down, dudettes! You'll never catch up to me now!"

I saw Yuma and Ray jump down the stairs, Astral close behind. Yuma crashed clear into the dark-skinned Barian, leaving him down on the floor. "Watch where you're going!" Tori scolded. Yuma got up and took off into the building calling interference on Bronk, Ray telling him to wait up. But Astral hesitated and looked at Alito suspiciously, as Alito groaned Tori's name.

During swimming class, I looked through the window to see Tori standing on the poolside. "Hey there," Alito called, fooling around on the high dive board, "How's it going?" _Step two, use the unexpected to catch her off-guard._

"Quit goofing around, you could get hurt!" Tori called back. Right after she said it, Alito fake-slipped on the board and began falling into the pool.

 _Now that I've got her attention, I'll give her a scare._ he thought as he splashed into the water. I even heard his thoughts from _under the water_. _She'll be completely defenseless as I unleash one of my most disarming lines._ Out jumped a scene of him successfully getting through to Tori, which I _know_ wouldn't happen to save her life!

Alito got his head out of the water about to say something, but he was interrupted. Yuma was standing on the high-dive, holding Ray in a half-nelson, to which Alito and I both sweatdropped.

"Let's do a double-dive! Come on Ray, let's high-five the sky!" Ray, on the other hand, looked rather nervous, trying to pry off Yuma's hand.

"Don't make me! Heads up!" he shouted in warning as he and Yuma jumped off the board. They were headed straight for Alito, who was calling, "Hey, look out!" But Yuma didn't pay attention and Alito got knocked out by the splash; someone had to _fish_ the poor guy out of the water.

Some time after, Tori was casually walking down the outer halls, when Alito approached her.

"Excuse me, Tori?" he asked, showing Tori a white feather, "I believe you dropped this."

Tori blinked, "That doesn't belong to me."

Alito relayed the final step in his strategy in his head with a glint in his eye. _Step three, win her heart with the perfect compliment._ He imagined saying that Tori was an angel, making her fall for him. But his hopes were dashed when he realized the feather was tickling Yuma's nose.

Alito gasped, looking and feeling super undignified in front of Tori as I stifled a laugh. Things didn't get much better after Yuma sneezed. The shock of it made Tori, Ray, and Alito flinch, and the poor guy dropped his feather off the side.

"Cover your mouth!" Tori scolded, only getting a "Sorry" as an apology. Then Yuma and Ray took off, Tori chasing them calling, "Get back here, you hear me?!"

Alito just stood there, glumly watching the falling feather with me shaking my head in disappointment.

I followed him back to the BARian, hiding just outside the broken window to hear their conversation. "So your strategy didn't work?" Girag guessed.

"No!" Alito snapped to answer after taking a drink.

"Maybe you need to come up with a different strategy, Alito."

Alito growled, "No, I'm sure that it would've worked if that other kid hadn't kept interfering. It was like he was trying to sabotage me every step of the way!"

"Sounds like you got a rival," Girag smirked and offered, "In that case, there's only one thing you can do. You gotta prove to her that you're better than this other guy. Challenge him to a no-holds-barred, one-on-one duel. Show her that you're a winner and she'll fall for you."

"Hmm... you may be onto something, Girag."

"Your problem is solved if you do one thing... Win! Now fuel up for your duel!"

Alito told himself, "I will duel, and win!" before devouring his food.

* * *

The next day, Alito left a note on Yuma's desk before heading up to the roof. I sat on the roof of a nearby building to spectate out of sight. Within a few minutes, Yuma rushed up to the roof to confront him. Yuma asked him if it was a joke that he was challenging to duel over Tori, but I knew he was serious. Alito said he was dead serious and demanded his response to the challenge. And added his refusal would mean "Tori would realize that I am the only one who is truly worthy of her." Yuma just told him he didn't understand, but he accepted the challenge anyway.

The two boys fired up their d-pads and duel-gazers. Without thinking about it, I concentrated energy to focus around my right eye. Light flashed in and around my eye, searing a deep, dark blue tattoo. My eye flashed a deep indigo for a split second, and instantly I knew it was now the Shadow Realm's signature color. I looked at the reflective metal surface of my spot, seeing the tattoo was like a misty swirl, a single curve trailing to somewhat away from my mouth. As unusual as the shape was, it looked as if it suited me. Turning my attention back to the rivaling boys, I was ready to watch how their duel went.

Alito was starting them off and was first to draw. _Whatever card I pick should help me take charge of this duel right from the start._ He summoned lvl 4 Battlin' Boxer Headgeared. Then he activated the spell Ring Announcer, allowing him to special summon lvl 4 Battlin' Boxer Glassjaw. He overlaid the two of them to Xyz summon rank 4 Battlin Boxer Lead Yoke. Yuma said he handled tougher Xyz monsters than ones with 2200 Atk. But Astral chided him to be extra cautious, for he sensed something different about their opponent. Alito apparently also noticed the sky-blue spirit that appeared on Yuma's left. _No, I can't believe it. That must be... Astral. He's the one who came from Astral World. And that can only mean one thing. That kid is Yuma Tsukumo._ He set two facedowns and ended his turn. _This duel should be more interesting than I expected._

Yuma drew and summoned lvl 4 Gagaga Magician, and equipped him with the Blustering Winds spell to prepare to attack. But Alito activated Lead Yoke's special ability, using an OLU to protect itself from getting "KO'd" in battle. Astral and I began to notice one of Lead Yoke's restraints crack where the unit struck. Astral noticed me on the building, mentally asking what was happening, to which I shrug. But the impact of the attack still dealt damage to the young fighter, dropping LP to 3700. But he also revealed that Lead Yoke's loss of OLUs raises his Atk by 800, bringing it to 3000, and the chain breaks off. As Astral feared, it wasn't to be taken lightly, and Yuma ended his turn.

Alito drew and activated the Mano a Mano spell, increasing any battle damage by 1000. Then he orders Lead Yoke to "KO" Gagaga Magician. The poor mage takes quite a hit and disintegrates, and Alito wants Yuma "to throw in the towel." On top of the first 500 damage points Yuma took, the spell card kicks in, dropping his LP to 2500.

Yuma draws and summons lvl 6 Dododo Warrior, and by lowering its Atk, he can summon it without a tribute. Then he activates Monster Reborn to bring back Gagaga, using his ability to make his level go from 4 to 6. He overlays them to Xyz summon rank 6 Gauntlet Launcher with 2400 Atk. He activates its ability, allowing it to destroy one present monster using an OLU. Unfortunately Alito plays Xyz Block, using Lead Yoke's other OLU to stop the attack. Not only that, but the rest of the monster's restraints break away, raising Lead Yoke's Atk to 3800. Discouraged, Yuma sets two facedowns, ending his turn.

Alito draws and orders Lead Yoke to finish off Yuma and Astral by attacking Gauntlet Launcher. But then Yuma activates Battle Rush, a trap that prevents Gauntlet Launcher from being destroyed, and Alito takes the damage Yuma would have. Unfortunately, Alito's "counter strategy" had him expecting that. He activates the Fancy Footwork trap, destroying Battle Rush. Astral knows Yuma would be down to 100 LP if Yuma doesn't do something he activates Xyz Strike, and though Astral says it's too risky, Yuma hasn't a choice. If Yuma draws a monster card, the battling monsters' Atk are swapped, and the opponent's Atk is 0'd out. But if it's a spell or trap, the damage will double, and Yuma and Astral will lose! But Yuma will need to take a chance, or he doesn't deserve to win.

I was really worried at the fact that Yuma's taking such a huge risk, against a Barian, no less. But he's definitely feeling lucky this time, and he draws the final card. The card he drew was the lvl 4 monster Ganbara knight, much to our relief. Yuma shouted with glee as Gauntlet Launcher destroyed Lead Yoke with a turbo jab. Alito got thrown back by the force of the blow, his LP plummeting to 0, and Yuma was declared the victor.

I was glad that the duel was over, but Astral noticed Alito's trump card next to him. _If Yuma had not used his trap card to destroy Lead Yoke, than his opponent's spell card Flaming Knockout could've been activated, and dealt him damage equal to his own monster's Atk. If that was the case, than Yuma certainly would have lost the duel. It seems that whenever Yuma finds himself backed into a corner, he always believes he will find a way to "high-five the sky." I am glad when he does not fall flat on his face._

I found that last thought rather funny as I felt my tattoo disappear and noticed Girag on another building. I used a Shadow Gateway to get over to him to talk. He turned to look at me, trying to seem menacing to me, but that was quite a failure when I saw his thoughts.

 _This girl's got a weird feel to her. She seems to have Dumon's composure, and Mizar's height. What does she know that we don't?_ Mizar and Dumon; those must've been the two boys that I saw in my vision of talking to them.

"You must be Girag," I guessed coolly, hiding my eyes, "Judging from what I've seen, you Barians don't seem to be as bad as you say."

He staggered back, stuttering, "Wh-what? Uh, of course we're as bad as we say we are."

I shook my head, "If you _were_ evil, you would've interrupted the duel between Yuma and your little friend, Alito. And I wouldn't sense any desperation in your thoughts, as much as I would malice. And I have a strong belief that your other comrades are the same."

He looked like he'd just realized he's been spied on all this time. Afterwards he put on a straight face and disappeared into an Overlay Network. I was satisfied with my work, and opened a Shadow Gateway to prepare to go to Barian World.


	6. I Found Out the Truth

It was late afternoon as I went through the streets holding onto Shadow, now with a hemp-string collar with a light blue crystal at the front. Just outside the city, in a clearing in the forest, we found an old, abandoned stone mansion. It looked like it needed some help, but it wasn't anything that my powers couldn't take care of. I walked up to the doors of the large house, placing my hand on the door. I felt my power being transferred into the house, and every crack was sealed in colored crystal. When the house was completely fixed, I opened the doors and walked in.

The house, now reflecting the bluish-purple crystal, had a familiar feel on the inside. I put Shadow down on the floor so she could walk beside me. I felt a presence behind me, and I turned to see a large serpentine, indigo dragon. It was female with a misty appearance, having thin arms with sharp claws on her talons. Her wings were also long and thin, but the rest of her body was all tail. However, it wasn't until I noticed her silver, pupil-less eyes that I recognized her.

"Is that you, Yinlong?" I asked the misty dragoness.

She replied in my head, **_Yes Star, it's me._**

I wasn't all that surprised, remembering that roar I heard when I held her card. I reached out to her, and she stretched out her talon to me, and we both touched. I let go of Yinlong's talon, and she disappeared back into her card. I began to notice the carpeted hallways had some moon globes that alternated along the pale blue walls, but they weren't lit. But when I touched one, it was like I turned them all on at once. The house was immediately full of light at the perfect setting for me. The lights were all suddenly glowing a calming, lunar silver that I was so fond of. I believe that they must have been made by a royal Shadow Roamer.

 ** _They are no longer called "Shadow Roamers", Star,_** Yinlong said in my head, ** _They are now called "Phantoms"._**

I kept wandering through the house, the moon globes lighting the way, until I found the living room. It was spacious and welcoming, with a fireplace at the back. The couches were cornflower blue, and the chairs were forest green. Just outside the crystalline back door was a back porch with a few loungers folded off to the side. This place clearly once had belonged to a large family of Phantoms, but for some reason they left.

I walked upstairs, finding several old pictures scattered on the wall. The pictures all had duel spirits in them, along with their young duelists. For some reason, I knew who the spirits were: the Arcana Forces and the Silver Spirits. That must have meant their duelists, a boy and a girl, were my great-grandfather, Sartorius, and his little sister, Sarina. I know, I know; me being descended from not one but _two_ villains should make me evil, too. But they weren't bad from the get-go; for what they both did back then, blame the Dark Light!

 ** _Ah, the family returns at last,_** a thin voice said behind me, making me freeze in place. I slowly turned to see Magic Mirror Spirit Nayuta and Arcana Force XVIII: the Moon. Nayuta swatted at Moon with her miko fan, obviously scolding him for startling me.

"Don't scare me like that," I sighed, and Shadow also hissed in protest.

 _ **Please accept my deepest apologies,**_ Moon pleaded, wincing from the hits that Nayuta gave him. I allowed them to follow me, despite giving me a scare for a first impression.

I kept walking through the halls with Shadow and the two duel spirits following. Nayuta was suddenly walking in front of me, leading me to a bedroom. The indigo-walled bedroom had a balcony, a dark blue armchair near the bed, and a wooden desk on the other side. There was also a dark gray pet bed near the chair, which looked the perfect size for Shadow. It was kind of weird, like everything in this house was specifically made for _me_. She said sadly, _**The house was your mother's inheritance. But alas, your parents left for safety, yet the Devil's Snare caught them both.**_

Tears appeared in my eyes as realization hit me like a brick: _I was supposed to_ live _here._

I cautiously sat down on the bed, thunderstruck at what I had discovered. I had found and repaired the house I should've grown up inside all those years ago. Shadow jumped and curled up in my lap, rubbing her head against my arm. I looked up crying a little, noticing that even Nayuta and Moon looked rather gloomy. As sad as I was, I was strangely content, as I was back home the moment I got here.

Afterward, Nayuta and the Moon went back to the Shadow Realm where they belonged. I had a feeling that they were telling their deck-mates that I came back. I put Shadow beside me, and got ready for bed. After I was ready, I turned the moon globes in the house to dim it to almost off, but just enough to see. I went back into my room to see Shadow still curled up on the bed, purring softly. I quietly lifted her up, placing her in her own bed, where she curled up even more. I also turned the globe in my room to a sleep-appropriate sheen before getting into my own bed and falling asleep.

* * *

(Star Dreaming) _Yuma was standing in front of a malicious-feeling man wearing a white MC suit with a walking stick. I could see his name was Mr. Heartland, the evil mayor from just about everyone's memories. Sitting up on a high ledge was a strong-looking man with a laid-back but calculating mindset named Erazor. Off to the side, Yuma's friends were motionlessly slumped against a wall, eyes completely and utterly blank._

 _It looked like Heartland and Erazor were trying to coax Yuma into giving them the Number cards. But one Number in particular was trying to make sure that didn't happen. A large white and gold, winged warrior with a red 39 on his shoulder was standing behind him. It appeared that it was Number 39: Utopia, trying to tell Yuma to be hopeful that Astral would return, reminding Yuma that the Numbers were friends. Meanwhile Trey and I were hiding behind some rubble, listening in on what was happening. Trey held a sword that he said he'd hurl at Heartland, and I had my spear to throw at any backup he might have._

 _Trey and I started to get nervous when Yuma reached for his deck case. I could tell he was considering what Utopia was telling him. Yuma made the right choice, choosing not to give them the Numbers. He told them that though he isn't involved with Astral or Barian World, Astral trusted him with the Numbers. The Numbers represented what they fought for, and shouldn't be given to someone like Heartland. The numerous spirits of the Numbers seemed to agree._

 _I nodded at Trey, and we both said that Yuma was right as we leaped out from hiding, throwing our weapons at our targets. As planned, Trey threw his sword at Heartland, and I javelin-threw my spear at Erazor. Heartland teleported away from Trey's sword; and Erazor moved his head away from my spear, which pierced the wall of his perch. We landed in front of Yuma, who recognized us as we did so._

* * *

(Star) I woke up the next morning to find that the sun was rising. I got up to see that Shadow was still sleeping in her bed. I smiled and stroked her head, causing her to wake up and stretch. I opened the door to let her outside of my room to explore the house. Once I closed the door behind her, I started getting ready for the day.

After I had some breakfast, I got dressed in my usual outfit and began looking for something to hide my identity for when I went to Barian World. I searched the closet, finding an indigo hooded cloak so dark it was nearly black. When I put it on, the cloak was just my size, trailing all the way to the ground, even covering my hair. I looked in the mirror, seeing that my eyes were also well-hidden.

I'm planning to negotiate with these Barians, only telling them of my people, and my name if necessary. With my eyes and hair completely concealed, no Barian will recognize me should they have to come to Earth. I walked out of my room to see all of the Arcana Forces and Silver Spirits wishing me luck, with the Dark Ruler leading. So, with everything ready, I opened a Shadow Gateway and headed for Barian World.

* * *

I found myself on Barian World, hiding in the shadow of a giant, blood-red crystal in a castle room. I could already tell that I didn't like this place from how it felt. Everything felt horrible and dead at heart, with cruel, deep red light radiating from everything. The colors made me remember when Kazuma and Byron fell into the vortex five years ago. The colors were exactly the same as the unfamiliar glowing runes that zapped them and me.

Once again, I felt a steadily growing pain spreading through my head, images soon following. The image was of a being with black skin, and armor of onyx. His long, gold-glowing hair had two crimson bangs at the front. His eyes were heterochromatic, one red and one blue, with a red third eye. His eyes were dark and malevolent, but at the same time withheld longing. I was standing in front of him, radiating just as much power as he was. "You will regret coming into contact with my tributes," he declared in his deep voice, "That, I assure you." I wondered what he meant, when the vision faded back as the pain receded.

"Dumon," a small female voice asked, "Are Nash and Marin ever going to return?"

I looked out at the scene that was in the room; one of the Barian emperors was with a young Barian girl. The emperor, with his back turned, was wearing a gray cloak and seemed to be shorter than I was. His mind was composed and collected with a bit of worry hovering in the back. The source was a memory of two familiar figures that seemed to have more authority than the other emperors. A lingering thought flashed through his head, _All we can do is wait and see, Iris. You aren't the only one who misses them; that, I'm sure of._

So it seems that Barian World is missing two of its emperors, and these two were close to them.

I shifted my attention to the little girl, Iris, whose features were visible to me. I was easily able to notice her forest-green hair and deep blue, worried eyes. With her hairstyle and small size, she looked like a miniature version of Rio. Her respect and close friendship for the missing emperors was an open book to me. The emperor, Dumon, gently patted her head in reassurance, "I'm sure they'll come back soon."

At this point, I decided to make myself known to the two of them. I cupped my hands and focused my power, making a medium-sized ball of glowing crystal. This seemed to catch their attention, as the pale purple glow of the moon globe was an obvious contrast to the Barian red. I slowly walked out from my hiding spot, my features covered by my own cloak. The emperor turned toward me, gently urging little Iris behind him, and I could see his dim gray eyes and skin.

"Who are you? And how did you get here?" he demanded, though I could sense his voice shaking.

I bowed politely and replied, "I am a Phantom, and I got here with my powers."

 _A Phantom,_ Dumon thought with relief, _at least I'm familiar with them. As far as I can remember, they only fight those who they know are bad, which we're not._ He immediately relaxed and let the little one come out of hiding so she could see me. Iris' eyes traveled down to see the moon globe I created, eyeing it with curiosity. She walked up to me and touched it as she commented, "Pretty," with a smile at its soft glow.

I placed my hand atop her head and replied, "Yes, little one; it is beautiful."

"All right, Iris," Dumon told, "Run along now." The girl nodded happily and loped out of the castle. As soon as she left, he turned back to face me. "So why exactly are you here?" he inquired, unsure of whether to trust me.

"I can see, and even _feel_ the suffering in this world, Dumon," I told him softly. "I can tell that it is likely to end soon. And after what I've seen, neither you nor your comrades deserve to live here."

Dumon stared at me with doubt in his eyes, his mind desperately clinging to false hope of this world's life. "This world will never die, Phantom," Dumon told in a cracking voice. But, despite his denial, I saw that deep in his mind, he knew I was right.

I asked him, "Are you even able to fully leave this place, Dumon?"

He sadly shook his head, "We have sworn loyalty to our deity, Don Thousand. We cannot break our oath to him."

I revealed to him, "Your deity actually wishes to use you and the other six as tributes." His mind exploded with the shock of what I said. I quietly walked up to him, placing my moon globe into his hands. "You all will be able to start over soon," I told him. "Use this to remember that, until Don Thousand is gone for good. And when the time comes, I will come for all of you, including little Iris."

I bowed politely and turned to leave, when Dumon took hold of my cloak. "Can you at least tell me your name?"

"My name is Star," I replied, "You will know who I am when you see me again." After that, I opened the Gateway and went back home.

* * *

On the other side of the Gateway, I found myself back at my house's front door. I went inside and took off the large cloak. I found that someone was calling on my d-pad, so I answered to see who it was.

 _"Hey Star,"_ I heard as Yuma's face appeared on the video, _"Where were you all day?"_

I replied with a smile, "I've found out the truth about my family. I'll tell you about it when I get the chance, okay?"

 _"Sure, see you tomorrow."_

I nodded and ended the call, and then I got ready for bed.


	7. When Things Got Tough

The next day, I went over to the school like last time, hearing the bell ring as I got close. I saw Yuma rushing through the entrance, causing me to face-palm. _Late again; no surprise._ I'm apparently now the around-the-school girl of Heartland Academy, courtesy of the student council often noticing me supervising Yuma's crew. Things were going on as usual: Tori scolding for Yuma's tardiness, Bronk teasing Yuma, and Cat trying to be noticed. But things got a bit hectic when duel period rang up.

I was watching Yuma's duel, in which he had just summoned lvl 3 Gagaga Girl, who was more than ready to battle. Unfortunately, before Yuma could do anything, Ray called out, "Yuma!" to get his attention.

Ray quickly said, "Come on Yuma; hurry, we got big trouble! Just come with me!" Ray quickly grabbed Yuma's arm before running off, leaving a super-ticked Gagaga Girl behind on the field. I quickly followed after them to see what was up.

By the time we got to where Ray was leading us, he yelped and ducked, leaving Yuma to take a shoe to the face. Cathy was being held back by Caswell, shoe in hand while yelling, "You _are_ a wannabe!"

Bronk was nervously trying to calm down Tori, who was shouting back, "Take that back you freaky cat!" The two of them were fighting for some reason; that was what Ray meant by "big trouble." They kept going for each other until Yuma told them to quit.

"I can't believe this! You guys are friends; what are you yelling for?" he shouted to make them stop.

Ray replied, "Well, it's sort of 'cause of an idea I had..."

Apparently, Ray's idea for the Super Secret Number Hunter Investigation Club(SSNHIC) cheerleader totally backfired on him. He tried to suggest Tori, as she was "Yuma's girlfriend" before remembering she couldn't duel. Cathy agreed, declaring that "we need a duelist, not a wannabe". That got on Tori's bad side, who retaliated by calling her a "freaky cat-girl". By then, things went downhill from there.

"...It's my fault." Ray finished sadly, which Yuma and I agreed. "Looks like the Ray Way failed again," Yuma groaned.

"Let's just forget it," Ray suggested, to which me and the boys agreed; Cathy and Tori, not so much.

"Stay out of this Yuma!" Tori snapped.

"But I don't think -"

"If you don't think, don't talk!" Cathy catcalled. Poor Yuma had to back down in dismay. Just then, I heard Rio's mind coming in close, soon coming in.

"What's going on, guys?" she asked, "Sounds like you're having an interesting discussion." Bronk grinned and suggested Rio being the cheerleader, but Cathy would have nothing of it.

"We need a real duelist," she hissed, pointing at Rio, "Not Shark's guppy little sister." I slinked away from Rio, seeing those words flipped the switch.

"If you're challenging me to a duel, Cathy, I accept." Rio replied venomously as a red aura glowed around her.

"Maybe this cheerleader idea isn't so great," Caswell figured, taking a step back, "Let's just forget it."

Flip added, "I'll tell you what isn't great: Bronk's intelligence."

Bronk looked at them menacingly as he growled, "I'll crush you."

Yuma got scared and called out, "No, Bronk, no!" But before we knew it, all Shadow Realm broke loose in front of Yuma and me. Yuma tried to calm things down as Astral secretly appeared behind him. The spirit looked around and jerked his head back to avoid a book to the face. I noticed Girag standing by the door and glared at him. _This is the chance I've been waiting for,_ he thought with expectation. I narrowed my eyes to sum up my opinion on his plan _._

* * *

The next day, Yuma and I kept an eye on everyone during their day. We watched as Tori and Cathy saw each other, both turning their backs and going in different directions. Farther down the hall, Bronk came across Caswell and Flip, turning on them.

"Guess they're all really mad," Yuma concluded.

"You think?" I asked rhetorically. Then we both saw Rio walking off with her back to us.

"Hey Rio," Yuma called, - even though I tried telling him not to - "Wait up!"

Rio stopped, her red aura still glowing, and asked threateningly, "Did you want something?"

Yuma flinched, "Who, me? Nah!"

When the school day was over, we were were walking down the sidewalk. Yuma was pretty bummed out that everyone left early.

"I really felt like having a duel today," he pouted. Ray offered to duel him, but Yuma declined.

"Okay," Ray replied cheerfully, "Some other time, then." Astral and I suddenly felt rather than heard Girag approaching from behind.

"Yo, Yuma," he said to get our attention. Yuma turned around, surprised by Girag's size.

"Yeah, what do you want?"

"Nothing much," he replied, "Just a little duel..."

"...So whaddya think?" Girag asked as he finished.

"You want them to have a sports duel?" Yuma asked back, confused.

Girag nodded and explained, "Your friends gotta get over their frustrations. And sports are the way to do it. Team 'em up with each other and they'll have to work together to win."

Ray smiled, "Know what? He's right."

Yuma grinned, "Yeah it's a great idea!"

"But there's one thing you gotta remember," Girag reminded them, "You'll have to compete, too. And if you make it to the finals, ya gotta make sure you let the other guys win." Astral and I listened carefully, discouraged by his reminder to lose on purpose. "The reason you're doing this is so your friends will be friends again," he continued, "If they win, they'll be happy; and if they're happy you'll be happy."

"Yeah, I get it!,"Yuma exclaimed, "Thanks a - wait; I don't even know you, so why do you wanna help me?" Yuma asked, giving the giant Barian a suspicious glare.

His mind scrambled in a blind panic for a cover story, coming up with, "Uh, it's because...I'm a big fan! I love your work!"

Yuma cocked his head, "Thanks, I think... Okay, tomorrow we'll hold the first ever Friendship Games! Come on Ray, let's go tell them!" Meanwhile, Astral and I seemed to be having the same thoughts: _I have a bad feeling about this._

* * *

After school, we had everyone gathered in the school courtyard, even Shark. Yuma, Ray, and Girag had everything set for the games. According to them, I would be supervising from the players area, while Ray would be MC. Girag hosted the welcoming ceremony, "I officially welcome all of you to the first ever Friendship Games!"

With applause, Yuma reminded everyone, "Remember, do your best and good luck." Ray said it was going to be fun; although everyone else disagreed.

"When will this be over?" Shark questioned in annoyance.

"Look," Yuma assured, "Let's just try. If we all get into this, we'll all come away happy!" Girag relayed the rules to everyone. They were going to play in teams; if a team won a match, they got a point; the two teams with the most points would advance to the finals. Afterward, the teams were displayed on the screen. **Too Cool and the Fool** : Yuma and Shark; **Nerd Herd** : Caswell and Flip; **Beauty and the Bronk** : Rio and Bronk; **Grrr-l Power** : Tori and Cathy. The girls hated being in a team together, but Ray calmed them down by claiming the winner would be SSNHIC cheerleader.

The first event was picked as a random card out of a box: Skydiving field. Everyone set their duel gear and picked a duel monster partner for the first event. I was also going to chose different monsters, depending on the event, since my job for this tournament is crossfire monitor. As soon as the card activated, everyone was falling through the air.

"And now," Ray called into his microphone, "The first duel will take place in the sky!" Shark was standing on Aero Shark, aiming for the **Nerd Herd**. "Go, Aero Shark," he commanded in a bored tone, and it used Devouring Dive on Caswell and Flip.

I was on Yinlong's back, commenting over my gazer, "Some of these guys could've at least used monsters that fly." Shark turned to look at me and nodded in agreement, as did our monsters.

Yuma, holding onto Zubaba Knight, shouted, "Hey look, Shark! We beat 'em!"

"The first match is a quick victory for Yuma and Shark!" Ray declared. I sounded off, "One point scored for Shark and Yuma."

The next match was a volleyball tournament, and I was on the sidelines with Dark Magician.

"Now it's the Beach Volleyball Duel." our MC announced. The match was Yuma and Shark vs. Rio and Bronk.

"Heads up, Bronk," Rio warned as she launched the ball to him. Bronk jumped up, ready to spike, thinking, _you just watch me, Rio._ However, he began to look nervous when he realized Shark was in front of him.

"Hey Bronk... in your face!" he shouted, spiking the ball at Bronk, being literal about his remark. The ball got Bronk square in the face as Black Ray Lancer used Shimmering Spear Slash on his Tin Archduke, destroying it. He fell to the ground as Rio looked down at him. Arms crossed, Dark Magician tutted with disapproval and commented, **_He should've paid more attention._**

 ****"And that is a facial 'disgracial.'" Ray updated, causing me to laugh a little. I called in, "Another score for Shark and Yuma."

Next match: Tennis Duel of **Grrr-l Power** vs. **Nerd Herd**. This time, I was flying above the field, riding on Koumori Dragon. Tori managed to receive the ball and hit it to the boys. Flip reflected it and taunted the girls. Tori was about to get it, but then Cathy rushed over and shouted, "I got this!" Famous last words; the two of them crashed into each other and dropped the ball.

"You're a total ball-hog!" Tori jeered at Cathy.

"I'm not a _hog_ I'm a _cat_!" the gray-haired girl hissed back. All the while, Cat Girl's looking down and Little Fairy is face-palming.

"See, they're finally speaking to each other again," Ray remarked off-mic with a grin.

"Sounds like yelling." Girag frowned back. Koumori growled with impatience as the girls carried on. I sighed and declared halfheartedly, "Score Caswell and Flip."

Ray nodded and tallied the scores: Yuma and Shark: 4 pt; Rio and Bronk: 3 pt; Caswell and Flip: 3 pt; Tori and Cathy: 0 pt.

Shark won at Table Tennis against the girls with a single strike. Bronk and Rio won the Wrestling match against Tori and Cathy. By break time, Shark and Yuma had 5 pt, whereas Bronk and Rio had 4 pt. Almost everyone was sitting down, exhausted, but the Kastle twins were still standing. The boys admitted they were beat, but the games were fun since they got rid of their frustration. Cathy and Tori were sitting back to back, but they smiled at each other. Tori apologized for being catty, and Cathy confessed her jealousy of Tori. Rio complimented them for being a good team.

"Hey Yuma," Ray informed, "Your friend's strategy is working perfectly." Yuma agreed before crying tears of joy, "This just makes me so happy!"

Astral commented, "I do not understand how a person can be so happy, when their dueling ability is so sad."

I laughed at the comment as Yuma snapped at him, "Be quiet!"

By then, Girag was announcing which teams were making the finals. Obviously, Yuma and Shark were advancing; we didn't expect Cathy and Tori to make it, though. Girag explained that all-girl teams get a 50-pt bonus, much to the boys' surprise. "And for being the points leader, I got a special kind of award to give you, so come with me."

The girls happily agreed and followed Girag, with Ray and Astral giving suspicious looks toward him.

I quietly followed Girag and the girls from outside the building, using their minds as trackers. They stopped at their usual classroom, a ways away from the courtyard. Cathy and Tori were wondering what they were going to get, hoping for a rare card. But when Girag turned around, he lifted Barian's Force to them. Their thoughts were quickly wiped out, replaced by a Barian red aura that only repeated, _We will battle for Barian._

I got really scared because Yuma and Shark were going to lose on purpose. Then I heard the familiar sound of Shark's runner starting up. I turned to see him putting on his helmet and getting ready to leave. _I'm over this_ , he was thinking before he drove away. My fear immediately disappeared; Shark left because he got bored, typical. That's a chink in Girag's plan; serves him right for lack of insight!

Besides, I was exhausted from all the excitement, so I figured Shark had the right idea to bolt. So I padded over to where the school's floral design club was, since I found Lotus to be trustworthy. I walked up to the door and knocked at it, hearing Lotus' voice reply, "Come in." I quietly opened the door to see that only Lotus was in the room.

"Welcome to the club, Star," Lotus greeted as she trimmed her petunia. _I can see that Star has been through much pain. But I'm sure that she'll find the club as a safe place for her._ I saw pity in her thoughts as she gestured for me to sit down by the window, and I did so.

"You needn't worry about me hurting you, Star," Lotus told me, "I'm not going to."

"I know," I sighed as I rested my head on the wall. I just sat there, listening to the sounds of Lotus' plant clippers. The snips were steady, helping me to calm down.

"Just fall asleep, Star," I heard Lotus say softly, "You clearly need rest." I was already getting pretty sleepy, and I knew that Lotus was right. Before long, my eyes closed, and I fell asleep.

* * *

When I woke up, I saw that the final duel was over. I also noticed Lotus was watching me as I sat up straight.

"Did you sleep well?" she asked me.

I nodded back and replied, "Thanks, I needed that." I got up and said goodbye as I left to get back to the courtyard. By the time I got there, I noticed that Tori and Cathy had no memory of the brainwashing. They didn't think they had their duel yet and started chasing Yuma. I smiled slightly before opening a Gateway and heading back home for the night.


	8. I Made it Through

(Yinlong) I knew that something was wrong in the Shadow Realm, but not exactly what. As I flew around practically invisible in the misty Shadows, I soon recognized Barian power. I went to the source of it, finding myself at Tachyon's cave. A Barian was standing in front of him, holding up a blank card. I watched as Tachyon was absorbed into the card, the Barian struggling to control it. The intruder succeeded in controlling Number 107. The yellow-cloaked stranger took his leave, and I sped away as well. I _must_ inform Star and Utopia of this, as it's abnormal that a meta-entity would enter the Realm.

* * *

(Star) I woke up to see Yinlong coiled up in my room, looking anxious.

"What's wrong, Yinlong?" I inquired to the indigo dragoness.

 ** _A Barian emperor has disturbed the Realm._** She explained, **_The interloper took a powerful monster named Number 107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon._**

 ****I didn't like the sound of that. Since when does anyone, Barian or otherwise, stroll into the Shadows and steal a spirit? Whatever it was, it didn't sound good. So I got ready and headed for the forests outside town.

I teleported to the forests to see Girag and Alito training there. I doubt that any of it would help in a duel, other than not collapsing in a Shadow Game. I watched them exercising on a cliff as I stood atop a tall tree, when I noticed something off with the weather; they noticed, too. Thick, dark gray clouds swirled around a location, sending down a single column of lightning, followed by a crimson explosion.

"Someone's come from Barian World," Girag concluded as he watched the explosion. Alito got nervous and added, "Not good."

Secretly, I followed them to get a better view of who came, with Yinlong not far behind. I got as close as I could standing on a tree. I noticed that the two didn't like the grand entrance; for the record, neither did I. Girag was wondering who it was, and Alito had a guess he hoped was wrong.

 ** _The interloper_** , Yinlong hissed as she flicked her tongue and lashed her whip-thin tail. The dust cleared and the force field disappeared, revealing a boy with long blonde hair.

"I'm right," Alito figured with bad anticipation, "This could get ugly." The newcomer turned around, showing his scarred face and cobalt-blue eyes.

 _Is that him?_ I asked Yinlong, and she responded with a nod and a tail lash.

"Welcome, Mizar," Girag greeted the blonde Barian. The newcomer, Mizar, gave Alito and Girag one black cube-like device to each of them.

"A Baria Sphere Cube," Girag echoed at the name of it. "So you say that with this thing, we can make a sphere field and have our duels inside it?"

Alito smirked, "Best of all, we can use all our Barian power."

While the two of them were talking, Mizar noticed me standing on the tree and thought, _I had best not concern myself with a human girl_. I hissed at him slightly as I felt something weird in my eyes. I shot a thought toward him, _Oh really? Well, anyone who dares steal a spirit from my domain shall endure my wrath._ He merely smirked and pretended that I wasn't there.

Meanwhile, Alito and Girag figured they'd be unstoppable with their power. Mizar turned his back while commenting, "Well, I think that remains to be seen," before he left. I knew what he was planning, and it didn't look good. I turned my back as well, teleporting back to Heartland City.

* * *

By the time I found Yuma, he, Ray, and Tori were walking home from school. Yuma seemed a little upset about something, and I saw that it was a nightmare from last night. I walked up to them, and Tori saw me coming.

"Hey Star," she greeted halfheartedly, "Yuma's been a little down today." I nodded in understanding and walked over to Yuma.

"Hey Yuma," I asked him, "Mind if I stay over at your place this evening?"

He turned to me and replied, "Sure."

Yuma and I walked up to his house, and he knocked on the front door. The one who answered was who appeared to be Yuma's older sister, Kari.

"Who's this?" she asked, gesturing toward me.

"My name is Star," I replied with a soft smile. Kari smiled brightly and introduced, "I'm Kari, nice to meet you. Come in, you're just in time for dinner."

As I followed Yuma and Kari into the kitchen, I saw Yuma's grandmother, Haru. There was also Lillybot, a female litterbot that lives with Yuma's family. The food was delicious, but Yuma didn't seem to be enjoying it.

"As usual, your cooking's great," Kari declared, "Right Yuma?" Yuma just nodded before setting down his bowl and standing up.

"Yuma, it's your favorite," Haru informed worriedly.

"I'm just not very hungry," Yuma moaned as he trudged away. It really shocked Kari and Haru as they exclaimed, " _WHAT?!_ "

"Don't tell me," I told the two of them, "Yuma's usually always hungry. I may not have been with his crew for long, but I _do_ know that much."

* * *

I had the spare room of the house, which happened to be right under Yuma's. Being just under him, I could hear everything he was worried about.

 _It seems like there are more and more Barian World duelists popping up every day. And that's bad news for me, 'cause every time I duel them, their game has me scrambling. Whenever they summon a Chaos Xyz monster with Barian's Force, they steal my monster's Overlay Units and then_ weaken _their attack points; I'm_ totally _at a disadvantage. It's like before I even get a chance to think about their move, they're on to the next one; I'm always one step behind. And that is_ not _good for my game. Which means I gotta find a way to outduel them, or Astral's days are numbered!_

* * *

The next day, Haru had me, Yuma, and Tori go and see someone named Master Roku. Haru had me go with them, as she said he was friendly. Yuma had to carry an enormous bag of food for him when we got there. I wondered why he had to do that, and they explained to me that it was usual for him.

We were all walking up a three-mile stone staircase, with me and Tori ahead of Yuma. Tori chided him to catch up, but he couldn't do that with the giant bag. We were only halfway up, but Yuma had to keep being reminded of why he was doing this. Once we were finally at the top, all three of us were pretty beat. This Master Roku lived on a temple at the top of the staircase.

"Anybody home?!" Tori called at the entrance, "Hello; Master Roku?" The one who opened the doors was someone else from what I could tell.

"Kaze," Yuma said happily when he recognized him.

"Long time no see, Yuma," he greeted.

We all sat down and Yuma asked where Master Roku was at the moment. "Sorry," Kaze apologized, "Master Roku isn't here. He's vacationing in the tropics."

Yuma pouted, "How do you like that? I climb up five gagillion stairs to bring him food, and Master Roku's off sunbathing."

Kaze smiled slightly and suggested, "Why don't you take it easy and rest for a bit, Yuma. You can stay as long as you like. And that way, you'll be good for your walk home." I mentally agreed with the suggestion, all while getting a sense of Kaze's mindset. He seemed like a nice person, but was betrayed during his past, like I was.

In the evening, I went over to where the legendary monsters' statues were. No one else could see it, but all the spirits of the shown monsters weren't far from their statues. In different sections of it were monsters that I was easily able to recognize. I walked over to Flame Wingman, Neos, and all of their pals to introduce myself. They didn't seem surprised that I was descended from Sartorius.

 ** _You surely have Satorius' powers,_** Neos mused, **_and Necrofear's timidity_**.

I smiled and added, "And then some," helping all of us to laugh a little. I heard Yuma coming in, and Flame Wingman wondered, **_I wonder why he's been looking so down lately._** I nodded as I watched and listened to Yuma's thoughts.

 _These monsters were used by legendary duelists; wish I had that kind of skill. I'm not even sure I have what it takes to protect Astral!_

Yuma turned to Red-Eyes Black Dragon's statue and flinched at its ferocity, gripping his key. Tori was thinking, _I wish I knew what was troubling Yuma._ I calmly walked up to the duel spirit, having it come down to my eye level.

"You shouldn't be afraid of Red-Eyes, Yuma," I informed him as I rubbed the black dragon under the chin. "He may have a temper, but he's a goodhearted and loyal dragon." No reaction; he probably wasn't paying attention.

"Yuma?" Kaze asked as he approached Yuma, "I know that look, want to talk?"

"I just..." Yuma began, but couldn't explain what he wanted to show.

"Well," Kaze told him, "when anything is bothering me, I remind myself... I never have to face it alone." Yuma looked up at him and tried to begin explaining again, but just couldn't. Then, Kaze gave two cards, saying that it was by Roku's orders if Yuma looked troubled or upset. "He's incredible," Kaze mused, "The master always seems to know just when his students need him most."

* * *

The next day, Yuma and Tori went off to the river not far from the sanctuary. I stuck around with all of the duel spirits; I enjoyed their company, and vice versa. As I saw the two of them head off, I went back to the room where the spirits were. I was wandering around the room, making small-talk with the spirits, when I heard someone ask, "Who are you talking to?"

In a panic, I swiftly spun around, almost clawing Kaze with my nails. Thankfully I missed, and he politely apologized, "My apologies, Star. But who are you talking to?"

I sighed, "I don't want to tell you yet. It's not your fault, I have trouble trusting others."

He said softly, "I'm sure you can trust me; after all, I've been there." I gave him a questioning look before complying and explaining myself.

"I'm basically the last of the Phantoms known to date; no help being descended from Sartorius. As a Phantom, I can see duel spirits, the future, and people's minds. But when I revealed that to someone, I was betrayed, causing my parents to be turned insane. For half of my life, I've had to endure pain that left many scars. And since then, I haven't been able to trust anyone, other than one person." Out of the blue, I felt something; it felt like Yuma and Astral were in trouble. "Something's wrong," I told Kaze, "I have to get to Yuma and Tori."

Kaze nodded and led me to the door as he said, "Good luck, and thank you." I nodded back at him and raced down the path that Yuma and Tori took.

I reached the river a lot sooner than I thought I would. I could also feel Mizar somewhere a ways down on the long way back. I ran over in that direction; if Mizar is over there, then Tori and Yuma aren't far away. Soon, the two of them were in my line of sight, and Mizar was standing on a tree limb behind them, aiming his hand. He was preparing to throw a ball of energy at Tori!

I wasn't not been fast enough to get in front of Mizar as he launched the shot; it got Tori. However, as I skidded to a halt, I instinctively launched a beam of Shadow energy, destroying the energy ball as I heard, _**Shadow Stream**_. The following explosion and Tori getting thrown back caught Yuma's attention as he spun around.

"Oh, I wouldn't be concerned with her," Mizar smirked, "You are better off worrying about yourself, Yuma."

Yuma turned toward Mizar and sneered, "Who are you?! Why'd you blast my friend?!"

"To get your attention, and it worked," Mizar said matter-of-factly before he activated his Barian sphere field.

As the sphere cube's black shell shattered, streams of red cards encircled the two of them. I walked the rest of the way there so I could catch my breath. I used my powers to silently enter the sphere field, hiding my eyes under my bangs.

"Who are you?" Yuma shouted and asked again.

"My name is Mizar," he introduced, "remember me well, for I am the last duelist you will ever face."

"I'm not scared of you Barian bozos!" Yuma jeered, "So bring it on!" _If I don't beat him, I'd be letting Astral down and maybe for the last time. Losing is_ not _an option._

Mizar chuckled and mused, "I know that beneath your tough exterior hides a terrified boy."

I took my chance, using Mizar's words against him as I stumbled upon a certain, hidden memory: _And_ I _know that behind your Galaxy-Eyes lies a boy who bears the grief of losing his parents before his eyes. One who was forced to carry the exact same burden as I do now._ The memory I saw was beneath the surface, so Mizar likely didn't know what I was talking about; or, for that matter, believed me.

Mizar only rolled his eyes at me, but things became different when I revealed my eyes. Mizar looked surprised, but quickly recovered his composure. He thought, _As far as I know, not even a Barian could have such depth in their eyes. With them having that deep, jade-like appearance, I can't help but wonder exactly what, or who she is. But she simply cannot be the Phantom that Dumon met, or is she._

Turning back to Yuma, Mizar informed, "You don't know what you're up against. Let me be clear; you _will_ lose."

"Everybody says that before I beat 'em! Let me show ya!"

With that, the two of them readied their gear. The rage that came from Mizar's intrusion quickly disappeared when I began to materialize my tattoo. Both of them set their d-pads, and all of us put up our duel gazers, ready for the duel.


	9. I Showed Them

Yuma had the first draw of the duel, causing Astral to appear beside him.

"Yuma," he asked worriedly, "What is going on?"

I gestured toward Mizar and answered, "Trouble; big time."

Mizar eyed Astral and flared his Barian aura while greeting, "So glad you could join us; welcome."

"You can see me," Astral observed and asked, "Who are you?"

Yuma tried to explain that their opponent was a Barian; "But when I'm through, he won't remember where he's from."

Yuma summoned his lvl 4 Goblindbergh, using it's ability to special summon lvl 4 Ganbara Knight. A moment after, he overlayed the two monsters and Xyz summoned No. 39: Utopia. His following thoughts: _My gut's telling me that now is the perfect time to use the cards Master Roku left for me. With these, when Mizar summons a Chaos Xyz monster, I'll be ready for him. I just hope Master Roku knew what he was doing by leaving these two cards for me. Otherwise, this is gonna be a short duel._ Yuma followed up by equipping the Overlay Chain spell to Utopia, firmly securing the Number's OLUs. That way, according to Astral, Mizar won't be able to steal them when he uses Barian's Force.

Astral was surprised at Yuma's move; it wasn't typical compared to his normal tactics. "Overlay Chain focuses on defense; I would've anticipated you to play Overlay Barrage. It sends all of your monsters OLUs to the Graveyard, and gives your opponent 500 points of damage for each one. It would appear that you have actually applied careful thought to this maneuver, Yuma." Yuma only said they had to be "extra careful." Astral replied, "I see; not a bad strategy." With that, Yuma ended his turn.

Mizar surprisingly thanked Yuma for summoning Utopia, claiming it was "just what I needed." He drew and special summoned lvl 4 Radius, the Half-Moon Dragon. It's special effect - it could only be summoned if the opponent controls an Xyz monster - brought it out, doubling its level to 8. Then he summoned lvl 8 Parsec, the Interstellar Dragon. He overlayed his two dragons and summoned Number 107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon. Yinlong immediately appeared next to me, hissing and lashing; Mizar clearly **was** the Barian who invaded the Shadow Realm and stole a spirit.

"A Number _over_ 100?" Astral asked to no one in particular. I saw Yuma's entire nightmare: Tachyon unleashing a powerful beam, blasting Astral to the ground; Yuma falling into a chasm.

"That monster!" Yuma exclaimed, fear coursing through his head, "It's straight out of my nightmare! Number 107," Yuma asked, "What's that about? I thought there were only 100 Numbers." Astral agreed, stating that his memories were divided into only 100 Numbers; they were both confused. "Number 107 should not exist," he claimed.

Meanwhile, Tori was hoping that we were all okay in this sphere field, when I felt the Kastle twins' minds coming in fast. I looked down to see Shark and Rio getting off his runner, him wondering, "What is that thing?"

Mizar had Tachyon attack Utopia, but Yuma used Utopia's ability to use an OLU to negate the attack. Astral observed the effective defense tactics that Yuma was using, though Mizar questioned if that would keep him safe. Yuma thought Mizar couldn't attack anymore, but he disagreed. With it, Mizar had Tachyon use an OLU to utilize Tachyon Transmigration, ridding Utopia of his effects. As an added bonus, Tachyon gains 1000 atk for every card effect played during a turn, raising it to 4000. Astral ordered Yuma to duel like never before to stand a fighting chance.

"Oh please," the blonde chided, "Your efforts will be in vain. This duel is already mine! Because when I use Tachyon Transmigration, my monster attacks again."

Mizar quickly ordered his dragon to attack with Tachyon Spiral of Destruction, destroying the helpless Utopia. Astral and Yuma braced themselves for impact as I bounced out of the way. The two of them were thrown back to the sphere field wall, LP dropping to 2500. Just as Yuma's back hit the wall, I detected severe electric injuries appearing, as if they were explosions. Astral only lightly hit his head on the wall, but he was instantly worried upon seeing Yuma getting zapped. Yuma dropped to the bottom, falling onto all fours as Astral and I went down to check on him. I looked down to see Rio keeping an eye on Tori, as Shark was really worried about his friend.

"Yuma!" Astral exclaimed as we both reached him, "Are you alright; are you hurt badly?"

"Yes; he is," Mizar replied to Astral's second question, "How pathetic. After a single hit, he's nearly broken! But I'm not done with him yet; not even close." I saw that where most of the pain was coming from was the top of Yuma's back, where the shoulder blades are. Yuma struggled to get up, but the pain was too much for him to bear. "Yes," Mizar taunted, "That's the spirit; get up, Yuma! Get up so I can relish knocking you right back down to the floor again. And while you're down there, you can think about how you let your Utopia slip away."

"I'd love to jump in and sink my teeth into this guy for Yuma," I heard Shark sneer. Yuma kept trying to get up, but he kept crashing back down.

"Come now, Yuma," Mizar kept jeering, "Don't deprive me of my sport. You see, beating humans is such a rare treat."

Yuma kept trying to push himself up and said, "Well that's too bad then, Mizar. 'Cause there's too much on the line for me to lose."

Astral stared in awe and murmured, "Yuma..."

"I must... go... on..." Yuma wavered and fell, clearly too weak and injured to stand.

"That's it!" Shark called, "I'm stepping in to duel in Yuma's place."

But before he could go in, an unfamiliar voice rang out, "No; _I_ am!" Out of the blue, a blonde boy with dark green bangs came flying in; his "wings" were an attachment from his robot. He seemed to be dressed in a white outfit, with a blue tattoo on his right eye, turning it red.

"This duel is mine," he declared as he detached from his robot and landed, "I'm taking over now!" I saw that he was Kite; Quinton's former pupil from what I could see; his robot, Orbital 7.

"Get real," Shark told him, "You don't have what it takes to beat him."

"Reginald, don't," Rio interrupted, her voice warped and eyes turning green, "The two Galaxy-Eyes, they are now calling out to one another. I sense the two dragons need to battle; they wish to duel."

Mizar followed my gaze to find Kite down below the sphere field.

"Ah," he mused, "So you possess a Galaxy-Eyes. How enticing." As they stared at each other, I could see the spirits of their rivaling dragons; understanding their roars of challenge and defiance. **_I challenge you,_** the dragon by Kite, Photon called to Tachyon. He saw the other dragon and roared, **_Who dares challenge me?!_** Photon roared back, **_I am Photon; now accept my challenge!_** Both of their duelists glared at each other, as if the issued challenge had clearly been accepted. The sphere field expanded, absorbing Kite and leaving a very worried Orbital behind.

Kite materialized not far from where I was standing. I looked into his silver eyes, as he was looking into my own deep green ones. He seemed to recognize me from when I was down after battling Heraldry Crest.

"You must be Kite," I said to him, "Quinton told me about you; I'm Star." _Interesting,_ his thoughts mused as he looked down to Yuma and Astral. Yuma managed to get out, "Kite... I..." He trailed off.

"Leave the dueling to me," Kite ordered, "I'll take care of this Barian for you. Don't worry; you see... me and this guy need to settle something. Only one can master the power of the Galaxy-Eyes. And that honor belongs... to me!"

Mizar smirked, "I must disagree; for it is I who is the one. Your confidence is greatly misplaced."

Kite glared back, "That's your second mistake; bringing me here was your first."

"That was not me, it was my Galaxy-Eyes; it seeks to face your Galaxy-Eyes." the Barian informed.

"I see, so be it; then whichever of us wins shall stand as the one." Kite concluded. Mizar agreed and set a facedown, with Kite switching places with Yuma to continue the duel, bringing Tachyon's atk back to 3000.

"No matter," the blonde Barian tossed his head, "Human duelists like you are easy to defeat."  
Kite didn't plan on losing the duel as he drew a card and used Photon Trade. By sending a monster to the Graveyard, he could draw two cards. He special summoned lvl 4 Photon Thrasher, as he had no other monsters. He also normal summoned lvl 4 Photon Crusher, tributing them to make a red shuriken to appear. He threw it upwards as he introduced lvl 8 Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon, to whom Tachyon roared at loudly. (Unbeknownst to anyone, I shivered from all the Light-attribute monsters; Light and Dark don't mix well.) Energy started pouring out from the two dragons in their proximity, causing a bright light to break out.

I could feel the fear of everyone down below, but it started to get further away. On top of that, another mind surfaced: Ray, aka Vector. I turned to him, giving him a sharp glare. _The jig is up, Vector,_ I shot at him. _I know that you're a Barian; you can't hide from a Phantom._

"'Having two Galaxy-Eyes poised to fight is as rare as it is risky.'" Mizar recited, "This may have explosive results." Kite suggested to kick things off with a bang before commanding Photon to attack Tachyon. He quickly activated Photon's ability, banishing the two monsters and making Tachyon lose its OLU. After the Battle phase, both dragons returned to the field; Photon gained 500 atk from the lost OLU, raising it to 3500.

"And that's gonna leave a mark," Kite added, "Because without OLUs, Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon is all bark -"

"I know what you're thinking," his opponent interrupted. "But I'll show you it has plenty of bite left."

He used the spell Instant Overlay, giving an OLU to Tachyon, using it right away. Photon lost all of its abilities and extra atk.

"Big deal," Kite sneered, "You just delayed the inevitable; I pity you if that's the best you got."

Mizar tilted his head down, "Kite, you're missing the big picture: I have the advantage now, fool. My dragon's special ability not only weakened your dragon; it also added 1000 atk to my monster."

Kite looked down at his cards, _If I play Lumenize, not only will it stop his Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon's attack, but my Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon will gain atk equal to his monster's atk._ Kite placed one facedown and ended his turn.

Mizar drew and activated Energy Attractor, a card that turned itself and Lumenize into Tachyon's OLUs. He considered his dragon's lack of them as a momentary inconvenience.

"There goes your trump card," I remarked to Kite as the OLUs attached to Tachyon. Mizar also activated Tachyon Drive, gaurding his dragon from traps and spells. Then he had Tachyon attack Photon, destroying him. Mizar had his dragon use its ability after to gain 1000 atk and attack again. But before the attack connected, I saw Kite activate something. Once the dust cleared, Photon was standing in front of Kite. He activated an ability in his Graveyard: by banishing Specter, he can return a monster by negating its effects and lowering its atk by 1000. But that was "a small price to pay" to bring Photon back. Mizar sighed, ending his turn, and Tachyon's atk lowered.

Kite drew, his duel-gazer eye glowing brightly as he activated Monster Reborn to bring back Photon Thrasher. He also summoned Photon Circle and activated Up Shift; all three monsters became lvl 8. Mizar welcomed the new challenge as rank 8 Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon was Xyz summoned. It immediately activated its effect Photon Howling, since Photon was used to summon Neo Photon. Tachyon's special abilities vanished, which Mizar considered "fairly impressive." Then Kite used another effect that used an OLU and took Tachyon's OLUs, gaining 500 atk, having it attack after. For the first time in the duel, Mizar got thrown back to the wall, getting zapped on contact as his LP halved, and Kite ended his turn.

Mizar drew and used Monster Reborn to bring back Tachyon, which wasn't helpful for Neo Photon's temper. I could tell that Mizar was done playing around in human form. He commenced a Barian Battlemorph, his necklace glowing with crimson light. As the light faded, he was in his true Barian form; that was what Alito meant by "all our Barian power," the power to take their true appearance. Astral sounded pretty shocked at Mizar's new look. While Kite complimented the getup, he failed miserably in a first impression. Mizar claimed that he could harness his power and activated Barian's Force. He performed Chaos Xyz Evolution with Tachyon, bringing up rank 9 Neo Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon.

I commented, "Something tells me that shouldn't look like a golden ghost flame." Mizar looked rather worried himself.

"My Tachyon Dragon... it has harnessed too much energy! This could breach the sphere field." He reverted back to human form as Neo Tachyon overpowered the field, disappearing into the light. He claimed it was far from over; one day he'd be the Galaxy-Eyes Master. The field began to fall apart around all of us as we began to fall. I had Yinlong to be my ride, apparently materializing her, as Orbital caught Kite. Yuma dropped from a tree and fell down a chasm; Shark tried to grab his hand, but he fell in as well. I used **Shadow Summon** , materializing Koumori and Curse of Dragon and sending down the chasm to pick up the boys. I watched as both dragons dropped down, hoping that they'd be caught in time.

Kite and I both landed safely on the ground as we all waited for the dragons to fly up. A few minutes after, we began to hear wing beats, before both of them slowly flapped up the crevasse. Koumori came up first, with Shark weakly clutching its back. Not long after, Curse flapped up, too, with an unconscious Yuma draped over his neck. Rio was able to help her brother off Koumori; Kite and I had to lift Yuma off of Curse.

"Thanks," Shark said to me once he was off, "We needed that." I nodded at him and looked at Yuma's many injuries; Tori kept his head in her lap with a worried look. I turned to Kite and told him, "Go call for help. Judging by the look of these two, we'll need a helicopter."

Kite nodded and commanded, "You heard her, Orbital."

"Y-y-yes sir!" the robot saluted and called someone. Within a few minutes, a large Heartland helicopter landed. Kite and I moved away from everyone as Yuma and Shark were brought into the chopper.

"Star," he asked quietly, as if forcing himself, "Do you want to... come over to my place?"

I smiled softly and nodded, "Sure."


	10. What I Could Do

I teleported back to my house to pick up Shadow, since I didn't want to leave her all alone. She looked happy to see me, gladly climbing from one of the chairs to my shoulder. Then, I walked in the direction of where Kite said he lived. When I found the large house, I knocked at the door, being answered by a little boy; Shadow leaned down and meowed at him.

"Hi," he greeted sweetly, "I'm Hart." _She's the girl that Quinton showed us to,_ his thoughts confirmed, _she seems pretty nice._ I smiled down at him and replied, "My name's Star. Would you mind taking me to Kite?"

He grinned, "Sure; I'll show you where my brother is!"

I was a bit surprised that he was Kite's little brother; they hardly look like each other. Nonetheless, I followed him with Shadow still on my shoulders.

Hart led me to one of the many doors in the house.

"You'll find my brother in there," he informed me. I nodded as he ran off in a different direction before opening the door. It was a lab with a large supercomputer in the center, with Orbital at the keyboard as Kite watched. I tapped my foot on the floor to get their attention, and Kite turned around to face me.

"I didn't know you had a cat," he mused as he spotted Shadow. _And it seems just like her_.

"Her name is Shadow," I introduced as I walked up to him. Shadow climbed into my arms as I held her to Kite. He put out his hand to her, mentally introducing himself. She looked at him and his hand before rubbing her head on it. "She likes you," I commented as he lightly stroked her back in turn.

I looked up at what was being displayed on the computer's screen. I saw numerous playbacks on the duel with Mizar being shown. Kite seemed to notice and turned his back, looking at the screen again; it was after Tachyon overdid it with the Rank-up. When Kite, Yuma, and I were falling from the sphere field, and I materialized Yinlong.

"That part has me pretty confused," Kite informed as he thought, _How can she make a duel monster come to life? Quinton told me something about her having powers; is this it? Is this the limit of her power, or is she even stronger than she appears? And if she is, just how powerful is she?_

I ignored Kite's clamoring mind as he kept pondering over those thoughts. Magician of Black Chaos appeared next to me, curious about the Barian god.

 ** _I wonder why Don Thousand wants the emperors for tributes_** , he pondered. I remembered the longing I saw in his eyes when I envisioned him.

 _Could he have been evicted from his real home?_ I asked him. He thought for a moment before nodding in response; **_That_** **could** ** _be it._**

 _What exactly is she hiding?_ A prominent thought stuck out of Kite's mind to me, as if he was literally asking me. I saw him attempting to look me in the eyes; he wanted to know what I hid under my hair. As a response, I silently lifted my head, exposing my eyes. He stayed in his usual position, but his head clearly expressed his shock at their depth and dullness. He walked up closer to me, trying to brush my bangs away; I kept moving out of his reach.

"Don't be afraid of me," he whispered to me, "I just want to look."

I only shook my head and responded, _What I hide, no one else has seen; it hurts too much to show._ He staggered in shock at my telepathy.

I was about to explain, but I was stopped by pain coursing through my head that made me fall on my knees. I went down far enough to be sure that Shadow could get down safely. I clenched my teeth, clutching my head as I faintly heard Orbital stutter, "M-Master K-K-Kite, massive energy is _spiking_ from the girl..." Scenes of Alito's Barian form dueling Yuma's Zexal Morph started charging through my head. The duel appeared to be taking place in another Barian sphere field. The two should have been arch enemies, but they were dueling as if they were close friends. The last thing I saw before the vision disappeared into black was Alito summoning his Over-Hundred Number.

"... can you hear me?" I faintly heard Kite's voice as he faded back into view. I heard him think, _What could've happened back there? I'm pretty sure that an energy spike and a blackout aren't normal, so what happened?_ I was able to find that I was sitting down, my back against the wall.

"I am sure she can now, Kite," a familiar voice chimed, "Now we know what Byron meant by her having powers."

I managed to focus my vision enough to see properly, and I felt two familiar minds behind Kite. I was able to recognize Hart's blue hair as he held Shadow for me, standing next to a man. When I got a good look at the man standing there, I recognized him: Dr. Faker.

Hiding my eyes, I glared at him sharply as I managed to struggle to my feet. "So these are your sons, Dr. Faker," I mused, "If I recall correctly, they were always on your mind." Faker's mind scrambled for a reason how I knew; Vetrix didn't tell him I was there. "Well then," I continued, "I suppose they didn't tell you, did they?" I lifted my head to reveal my eyes; Faker flipped through his memories to find a match. The only one even close was a glimpse of me from the expedition. "Yes, it was me," I confessed, " _I_ was the phantom girl you saw five years ago; _I_ witnessed you betray your comrades. I even tried to save them; the only reason I couldn't was whoever set the trap." Everyone in the room was staring in shock as I kept my gaze locked on Kite's father. After a few seconds of utter shock from everyone, Faker hanged his head and broke the eye contact.

"Believe me, I understand the consequences of my wrongdoings, miss. But I did it all in order to help my young son. A Barian promised to save him if I collected Numbers and destroyed Astral World. However, little did I know that a Phantom had seen the betrayal. We all had previously believed that your family was gone; apparently not."

"What do you know about my family?" I asked as Hart returned Shadow to me. Faker gestured for Kite to do something on the supercomputer. _She doesn't know the whole truth yet_ , I heard from Dr. Faker. Kite quickly went to the computer's analyzer, in which was a tube of red liquid. Just by looking at it, I tensed as my left shoulder began to sting. Holding onto Shadow, I revealed my shoulder through the neck hole. I found that a small puncture wound was in my shoulder, not far from the scar. I quickly covered it back up, seeing in their memories that they took a blood sample while I was out. Kite was working on the analysis as he thought, _Pretty soon, we all will know her ancestry_. A DNA file was immediately shown after the scan was complete. A family tree appeared on the monitor with me at the base. As my parents came up on the screen, it ended with all of us in shock. It read that both of my parents were dead, and that I shouldn't be alive.

"That's impossible!" I burst out. "Of course I'm alive!" It seemed that the Tenjo family agreed with me on that. Kite thought this through and concluded, "Perhaps someone doesn't want people to think you or your parents are alive."

I remembered the three scientists from just before my eighth birthday; it must've been them. Kite's father nodded at him and asked me, "Are your parents even still around?"

I sadly shook my head, "Probably not; even if they are, they'd be unapproachable anyway. With their dead-hearts, the two of them are evil now." Kite slightly cocked his head at me, obviously confused. "I want to tell you," I informed, "But the memory still haunts me; probably just as much as Mizar haunts Yuma."

As Dr. Faker left, I felt Hart's mind close to me as he tugged at my shirt. I looked down at his worried expression as he asked, "Did something happen?"

 _That's right,_ Kite mentally face-palmed, _I didn't tell him yet._ I sighed as I explained, "Hart, there's been an incident..."

* * *

That night at my house, I wasn't able to get much sleep. From the Shadow Realm, many messengers came in from Yuma's deck. All of them were bringing reports of serious nightmares; not even Utopia was safe. They all seemed pretty worried, and I figured that Shark's monsters weren't very pleased. I was pretty worried about Astral; if not even Utopia's safe, Astral might be having a bad night, too.

I laid on my bed with my eyes closed, willing myself out of my body until I was free. Even after so many years, it surprised me that I could still phantomize as I stood. I looked into the mirror to see myself in my usual garb in this form: an ankle-length, short sleeved lavender dress. I avoided looking at my arms and how scarred they were. Not many know this, but I have so many scars that my skin looks cracked to the point of shattering. I didn't like this, but according to the Numbers, this was the only way to visit Astral in the key. So, leaving Shadow sleeping in her bed, I left the house, floating to Heartland City.

I hovered above the city, picking out familiar minds and ignoring ones I didn't recognize. Within seconds, I was able to single out Shark and Yuma, very close to each other. I quickly flew in that direction, tracking them to a towering, white building with a flat roof. That _had_ to be the hospital they were in. I followed their minds to one of the many windows and phased through it.

I was able to see Shark as he was lying in his bed, breathing steadily. Thankfully, he appeared to be asleep, unable to see all the scars littering my arms. I phased through the curtain separating him and Yuma, who looked to be in a nightmare. I saw it all: being thrown to the sphere field wall, getting electrocuted, and collapsing as Mizar's taunts echoed through his mind. He was terrified to the point of almost waking up as I entered the key, sticking out from under his pillow.

* * *

The inside of the key was very peculiar as I hovered inside it, to say the least. Everything - the sand, the sky, even particles that flew out from the ground - was a shade of blue. A hovering golden ship stuck out from the cerulean background, with a mind and a lot of spirits inside it. I instantly knew the mind was Astral; the spirits were all the Number cards. I floated to the center of the ship, where Astral and the Numbers were.

As I phased into the ship, I saw a small, pale blue sphere field with a flickering Astral inside. The position he was in appeared to be lying down with a hand on his chest. His eyes were closed, but I could tell that he was conscious. He was recovering from the effects of Mizar's Barian sphere field, from what I could see in his thoughts. I placed my hand on the field and let my power pulse through it, giving the field a purple tint. My pulsing power seemed to help Astral heal, and he slowly opened his eyes.

Astral was both surprised and curious as to how I was in the key. _How did Star get inside the key? What is she wearing? What are those marks that are all over her arms?_ The whirling questions in Astral's head began to overwhelm me.

"Hang on," I whispered to make it stop, "I'll tell you." Astral's stream of questions came to a screeching halt at my words. I had to tell him about it, so I sighed and used my telepathy to tell him. _To start, my people are actually called Phantoms now; I phantomized to get to the hospital and into the key. The reason why is on account of the concerns of Yuma's monsters for both him and you. This dress is what I always wear when I phantomize; the Arclights know that. All over my arms are just a fraction of a long eight years' worth of scars. In case you don't know, I've had to endure abuse for_ half _of my life._ Once I finished, Astral was staring at me in shock and wonder as he lay in his recovery field.

 _ **Yuma never informed me of this "abuse"**_ he told me, ** _Is it common among humans?_**

 **** _Abuse is a cruel and heartless wrongdoing; a relatively common crime, but woefully secret._

 ** _Why is that?_**

 **** _There are various reasons for its secrecy, Astral. I hid it because I'm a Phantom; if I told anyone, my parents and I would all be killed._ I figured that a long time had passed during our little conversation. "I have to go Astral," I sighed; Astral turned his head back face-up and took mental note of my words. _This world has many concepts, but Star has shown me one of the most common, cruel, and elusive concepts of all._ "You can say that again," I mused at his thought as I left the key.

* * *

More time must have passed than I thought; it's morning now. Yuma isn't around - _strange_ \- and the curtain's open. Shark's sitting up in his bed, reading some kind of book; he didn't notice I was there. I silently floated over to him to see what he was reading. I peered over his shoulder, seeing that the book was about my people. The page read about powers Great Mothers can acquire, and the rarest and strongest kind is Shadow.

Shark turned his head, seeing me next to him. Oddly enough, he didn't look surprised; he flipped to a different page. He turned the book to me so I could see what the caption read:

 _Phantoms are secretive, spiritual entities that have the ability to_ _ **phantomize**_ _, or have their spirits leave their bodies. This power allows them to enter places that people normally cannot at certain times. The Phantom can wear anything physically; when phantomized, their attire remains largely the same over their lifetime._

Shark was smiling next to me when I was done reading the page.

"Quattro's older brother told me a thing or two about you having powers, Star," he informed, "I'm guessing you're phantomized."

I nodded, "I wish that I could wear something that covered my arms." He looked at the marks on my arms and thought, _Star's broken from the inside out; no wonder she finds trust so hard to find_. "I'd better get home, Shark," I told him, "Who knows what Shadow does when I phantomize." He nodded in understanding, and I flew back home.


	11. I Didn't Choose Sides

Within a few days, Yuma and Shark were ready to come back to school. During that time, I kept an eye on Girag, Alito, and Mizar. Mizar was probably giving Alito and Girag a hard time. Because of that, the two of them were often sitting in the BARian, sulking. Well... _Girag_ did the sulking; Alito, on the other hand, was getting ready to challenge Yuma. I wasn't worried that Yuma would have any trouble with him. They look like they'd be pretty good friends if Barian and Astral World weren't in such a clash.

At first, Mizar was a little tricky to track; his mind was relatively quiet in general. There wasn't much that actually stuck out in his thoughts. He was often roaming around the city at night and resting in trees during the day. I've always been a night person, so I understand why he likes it so much. There's a difference in terrain, though: he travels on the ground; I roam the rooftops while I'm phantomized. He doesn't even know that it's me when I'm up there.

On the day that the boys were back from the hospital, I passed by the BARian to hear arguing, along with mental clashing.

"You know what'll happen to you if you lose, don't ya?" I heard Girag's voice. I went closer to it while staying out of sight. In response to Girag's question, Alito sighed.

"Yeah, I know. But I don't care, Girag; as a matter of fact, I welcome the danger! I mean it; I'm willing to put my own future on the line to prove I can outduel both of them!" From checking their memories, I found that if a Barian loses a duel in their true form, their strength becomes critically depleted.

"I won't let you do this," Girag growled; Alito waved it off and walked away.

I quietly rushed back to the road so that Alito wouldn't get suspicious. Not a moment too soon, I got there just as he opened the door. We stared at each other for a moment as he thought, _That looks like the same girl that I saw when I was trying to win over Tori._ Then he shrugged and climbed up a small tower, standing at the top.

"This will be the most dangerous duel I ever had," he said to himself. "And I can't wait!" His thoughts went still as he noticed I was still standing there. His returning thought came back up, _Yup; that's her._

Alito slid down the ladder and approached me, sizing me up when he was close enough. He didn't seem too worried at the fact that I was noticeably taller than he was. We both began to walk side by side to Heartland Academy.

"Actually I'm also looking forward to your duel, Alito," I told him with a smile.

He gave me a childish grin, "I'm sure it'll be - wait." He started to glare at me, "Why are you being nice; aren't you on _their_ side?"

I sighed, "That's just it; Phantoms don't _choose_ sides. I don't know why, but everyone thinks we're double agents."

He cocked his head, "Then how _do_ you fight?"

"Phantoms go to the source of a clash and do what they can to help. We turn a longstanding feud into a meaningless quarrel that dies down and disappears." At the start of the paved road, I stopped as I felt a sudden spike of Barian power. Shadowpriestess of Ohm and Dark Elf appeared from my deck, reporting of an outmatch duel being set against Yuma. "Alito," I revealed, "Looks like you're friend is hoping to pull a fast one."

He immediately understood as he thought, _After what I told him he_ still _won't let me do it myself?_ He asked, "How will we get there?"

"We'll take the rooftops; they're faster. If we hurry, we can stop him in time."

Alito nodded, and we both climbed up a building.

 _Lead the way,_ I ordered my monsters; they flew off, and I followed them with Alito not far off. After leaping some buildings, we got to a point where we heard shouting. I activated my duel gazer tattoo while Alito's left eye turned red. As soon as the vision link was established, a variety of monsters came into view. In the middle of it all were monsters I recognized: Big Jaws, Zerofyne, and Gagaga Cowboy.

I suggested, "We should get our d-pads ready; Girag's pulling an outmatch duel, and we have to stop it." Alito nodded and set his gear up, but when I activated the duel mode on my d-pad, my gear vanished. I was about to shout in protest when the same indigo mist from before appeared again. It circled my left wrist in a double helix, creating a thin, silver wrist gauntlet around it. The pad itself resembled a three-point star mounted on the gauntlet by one point. It was colored lavender and indigo outlined in silver. As the touch screen, there was an indigo, diamond-shaped crystal on the forearm of the gauntlet with the deck case atop the wrist. _Cool,_ Alito awed at my new gear; my thoughts exactly. Alito and I synced into the Battle Royale once we were ready. We both used our powers to get in the middle of the action. He tuned into a shower of red lights as I disappeared into the shadows.

Alito and I seemed to get into it at the right time from what was happening. Ray was restraining Yuma while a mob of duelists were preparing a mass attack. Alito yelled, "I'll put a stop to this, Yuma; go Lightning Clinch! I may lose 3000 LP, but you and your army are gonna have to try a different approach if you want to KO us to get to Yuma!"

The spell caused all of the monsters' attacks to be stopped. Girag wanted to know why we were helping Yuma, but he said that was his business. Alito managed to get up from the aftereffect of his spell and handed it over to me.

I drew and summoned my Lord of Dragons to play a Flute of Summoning Dragon. That way, I got, Curse of Dragon and Curse of Dragonfire on my field. Then I tributed Lord of Dragons to summon Invitation to a Dark Sleep. I overlayed all three lvl 5 monsters in order to Xyz summon Yinlong, who came out with a shrieking roar and venomous undertone. I immediately activated her special ability, "By using an OLU, Yinlong can destroy every enemy monster and deal damage equal to their atk; go **Umbral Outburst**!"

The words for the ability just appeared in my head the way my spells do, and it seemed to work. Yinlong shot a stream of light purple energy into the ground, causing a wave of glowing shadow to cut through each monster. Once every monster was destroyed, blades of pure shadow shot from the ground at the students, wiping out their LP.

As the AR link let down, all the Barian symbols marking the students disintegrated as they collapsed. My d-pad disappeared and the deck case detached, leaving only the gauntlet on my wrist. The crystal on it seemed to radiate with the Shadow Realm's power. I wasn't sure how this new gear could help me from here on out. But I _was_ sure that the Arclights will be taken by surprise when they see it.

Alito was a little worried about how Girag would react to him helping Yuma.

"You... traitor," he growled in a dangerous tone before shouting, " _How dare you!_ Whose side are you on, Alito? We were given a mission! We need that kid's Numbers to save our world, and it's our job to take 'em any way we can!"

Alito confirms, "I'm aware of that... I know what I need to do!"

Yuma interrupted, "What the huh; you mean _you're_ from Barian?!" As everyone was shocked, I looked down, giving Ray - a.k.a Vector - a mental command to show his true self. His eyes slightly glowed red, but he managed to resist my powers, though I don't know how.

"So why are you standing in my way?" Girag inquired, clenching his fist.

"Oh you know why," Alito fired, "I already told you I'll beat Yuma and Astral by myself!"

Girag declined, "There's too much at stake; we can't afford to take any chances this time. This Yuma's a lot tougher than you think!"

Alito glared back, "He's a great duelist; I know. That's why I want to confront him all alone; I'll beat him and take all his Numbers, proving I'm the best. My loyalty is to Barian world, but I'm a duelist first. That's why I decided to settle this my way: by dueling with honor! It's a disgrace to rig a battle the way you did! Now _get outta here!_ " Girag hesitated, still wanting to protect Alito; he clearly needed a hand to make him scram.

"You heard him, Girag," I snapped, "Beat it!" Girag cringed at the harsh words before disappearing.

Alito turned back toward Yuma and asked, "You will duel me, won't you?"

Yuma asked another question, "Hold up; if I accept I'm gonna have to put my Numbers on the line, right?"

"Of course. But Yuma, we'll both be dueling for Numbers and for our very survival. I'm willing to risk everything to duel against you! I'll beat both you _and_ Astral!"

"He is determined to confront us," Astral observed, "Like it or not, sooner or later we will have to face him."

I nodded in turn, "That may be, but he definitely won't pull any underhand tactics. Besides; if your worlds weren't so tense, they'd likely be good friends."

Yuma glared at Alito, "Then why wait? Let's do it. If you're so eager to battle us, then bring it on; we're ready!"

Alito boldly grinned back, "I knew you wouldn't let me down! And I promise not to disappoint! I activate a Barian sphere field!"

Just like last time, the sphere cube's shell broke and created the field, this time without me in it. I didn't want a relapse of what happened with Mizar, so instead I climbed up a roof for a good, safe view. Yuma, Astral, and Alito were materialized in the field by the time I got up there.

"Now Yuma," Alito smiled hopefully, "We'll make this the most epic battle ever!" Yuma agreed and tossed up his d-pad as Alito brought out his Barian d-pad. Everyone set their duel gazers, I got up my tattoo, and Alito's eye turned red again. Everyone seemed a lot more relaxed about this duel with Alito than the one with Mizar.

Alito took first draw, summoning lvl 4 Battlin' Boxer Headgeared. Since he can't attack first turn, he special summoned Battlin' Boxer Sparrer. He used his Boxers to Xyz summon his rank 4 Lead Yoke, like last time; apparently Astral noticed the familiar style. Alito also reminded Yuma and Astral about Lead Yoke's ability: "you can hit as hard as you like in battle, but it's impossible to destroy. And on top of that, it gains 800 atk." Yuma recalled how that monster kept knocking him around as Alito ended his turn with three facedowns.

Astral suspected that Alito was setting up his "counter strategy" from last duel. _That was genius_ , Yuma's mind complimented, _Alito countered every move against him and it made him even stronger. I barely managed to find a way around it._ I was so absorbed in those thoughts, I shot something at him without stopping myself: _As if I don't know that already, Yuma? I was there and watched the whole duel._ I didn't realize that I did it until he spun around and shouted, " _Who said that?!_ "

...Oops.

Thankfully, Yuma shrugged it off and did his draw when Alito demanded, "Stop stalling and make a move already!" He summons lvl 4 Gagaga Magician and special summons lvl 2 Gagaga Child. Upon that, Yuma activated the little mage's ability, having him chomp an ice pop to become lvl 4, too. He overlays them to Xyz summon Utopia, who Alito claimed was going to be his soon enough. Yuma decides to put three facedowns the same way Alito did.

Alito figured that Yuma was trying to take out his strategy again. Yuma was about to end his turn when Alito activated Overlay Flash; Shark said he activated it to catch Yuma off-guard. With the spell, Alito used one of Lead Yoke's OLUs to negate Utopia's abilities and raise its atk to 3000. Astral considered Alito's tactics as "more aggressive than I expected." Yuma had a trap called Fiery Fervor that would double Utopia's atk since Lead Yoke's atk increased; he _could_ activate if it was Alito's turn. Since it's facedown on Yuma's turn, they couldn't activate it; with a slight sneer, Yuma ends his turn.

Right after taking his draw, Alito commands Lead Yoke to attack Utopia, which resembles his attack on Gauntlet Launcher last time. Yuma also tried to use Battle Rush again, but the same scenario from last time reoccurred: Alito destroying it with Fancy Footwork; another bye-bye Battle Rush. Then Yuma pulls Xyz Strike and was ready to draw. But before he did so, Alito activated the Counter Clash trap to destroy Xyz Strike and deal double the damage for Yuma during the battle. Alito clearly could learn from his mistakes. After Lead Yoke blew up Utopia, Yuma and Astral were both sent to the wall, LP dropping to 3000. Thankfully, Yuma wasn't badly hurt this time upon hitting the wall as Alito ended his turn.

Yuma complimented that Alito's move was outstanding, and he was "totally feeling the flow on that last attack." He was as ready as ever with this duel, and the young Barian returned the attitude. He was hoping to go one-on-one until the best duelist is left standing. _He sounds just like Yuma,_ Astral realizes as Yuma declares he's not "pulling any punches" activating the Xyz Revenge spell. Using Lead Yoke's other OLU, Yuma was able to bring back Utopia and attach the OLU onto him. Alito was glad that the unit was gone, since that also broke the rest of Lead Yoke's chains, raising his atk to 3800.

Meanwhile, keeping his facade up, "Ray" called a bad move on Yuma's behalf, and that now the enemy monster would be harder to beat. Shark, on the other hand, didn't think so as Astral had Yuma use Fiery Fervor. Utopia had his atk doubled to 5000. Alito stared in awe as he realized he fell for a perfect counter move from Yuma as he had Utopia destroy Lead Yoke. Alito flew to the wall as his LP became 2800. Tori thought Yuma could finish him off, but Shark knew this was far from the end.

Astral was easily comparing Yuma and Alito as they both were. _It seems Yuma and Alito are perfectly matched as opponents; I am curious how this duel will evolve moving forward._ A sudden pain shock ran through him from the Barian sphere field. _This Barian sphere field is starting to drain my powers just at the moment Yuma will most need my help._

I wanted to help Astral in that field, but I was having my own power crisis. Slow pounds worked up my back, my neck, the base of my skull. When it hit the top, a vicious stab of agony rapped at my head, making me fall back on the roof I was on, screaming and clutching my head. A crude vision claimed my sight: Alito getting brutally beaten by Vector's true form as I was desperately fending him off. Vector preparing a power ball at Alito as I leaped in front, making a shield of my own power. Vector's power shattering my shield, and exploding in cruel red.

"I should've killed you five years ago, Star," Vector cackled in the vision, " _You little brat..._ "


	12. I Wished to Help Both

Desperate to escape the vision, I fought for control of my sight. I was able to see what was really happening for a few seconds at a time, despite the pain. I could faintly hear Shark, Rio, and Tori coming up to the roof to find out what was wrong. After a few bursts from the vision, I got myself to deactivate my duel gazer tattoo. Something was telling me that it wasn't going to help with this situation.

 _Wait for me,_ I ordered the three of them, _I'll come back when this is over with._ With that, I was dragged back into the vision.

As the vision progressed, I saw something that I didn't expect in Vector's mind as he cackled away. Seeing his memory, I realized that _he_ was why I wasn't able to save Kazuma or Byron five years ago. And the night before I turned eight, he also had someone put a seal on my powers, turning my eyes green. No wonder my powers felt so cramped; they weren't allowed to go into full strength. Not to mention something always looked and felt _wrong_ with my eyes when I saw myself. In the vision, every time our powers clashed, a kind of seal appeared in front of my hand, restricting my powers. But not long after figuring out what Vector did in the past, I felt the vision fading away, and the pain releasing.

I opened my eyes to see Tori and both of the Kastle twins sitting around me. My head was in Rio's lap as I felt their concern and curiosity as to what happened to me.

"What in the world was happening to you, Star?" Tori questioned, fear visible in her thoughts. _She was screaming so loudly, like something was tearing apart from the inside. What kind of pain was she going through?_ I sat up, touching the scar on my forehead with my hand.

"My power is rebelling against a seal that was put on it on the night my life fell apart. If I can break this seal, my eyes can return to their real color; according to what I had seen, they shouldn't be green."

Everyone around me gasped at my words that my eyes were the wrong color. I also heard from their minds that Tori, Rio, and Shark all wanted to know what color my eyes should've been.

"I say go for it," Shark encouraged, "If your real powers can come out of hiding, they might not give you such a bad seizure."

I closed my eyes, focusing on finding this seal, using the symbol I saw in the vision as reference. Within seconds, I found it, hidden deep inside my mind. Inside my mind, I created the same crystal spear I used to defeat Heraldry Crest. From the spear-tip down the handle, it glowed brightly with detained power, echoing my will to be free of this seal. Channeling all the power that I had to the spear, I was ready to take aim. But I was stopped short as my spear morphed into an indigo, crystalline scythe, still glowing, but even brighter. After testing the weight of my new weapon-of-choice, I aimed for the center of the seal's symbol. It resembled the Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell, which made sense with what it was doing to me. Holding my scythe tightly in both hands, ready to swing, I rushed at it.

As soon as the seal got within range of my weapon, I swung my scythe at it. The sudden movement unleashed a surge of power as the blade carved it all the way through. Still pushing at it, I watched as the seal began cracking. The cracks spread further and further, all the way around. When the seal couldn't take any more, it shattered and dissolved.

The moment the seal disappeared, I felt something break deep inside me. It wasn't in a bad way; it was more like chains breaking off of me. Satisfied with my newly found freedom, I returned to reality. I opened my eyes to see that they were all staring in awe.

"What color are my eyes now?" I asked them all. No answer from any of them; they weren't looking at my eyes, they were looking at my body. I stood and looked at myself, seeing that all of the scars on my body were glowing with lavender energy. The glowing was actually showing through my clothes, the edges prominent. After the glowing faded, Shark and the girls all stood up and looked me in the eyes. Tori took out a small folding mirror from her bag, opening it and showing it to me. I looked into it to see that my eyes were now indigo, with lavender scleras. They were still somewhat dull; but instead of lifeless, they looked _real_. "If you ask me, this is much better," I proclaimed, smiling at them all.

"They're beautiful," Rio beamed in agreement with me. _Star's eyes don't look nearly as blank as before,_ Shark observed, _and with her full power ready, the Barians don't stand a chance._ I looked past them to see that the Barian sphere field was still there. When I activated my duel gazer, my right eye just glowed more than my left; no tattoo. I pointed at the sphere field, asking rhetorically, "Let's get back to this duel, shall we?" All three of them nodded, putting their duel gazers back on and climbing down.

Currently, Astral and Yuma were starting to merge together. Alito had his over-hundred, rank 4 Number 105: Battlin' Boxer Star Cestus, on his field. It seemed that none of them were paying attention to my little episode due to their duel. We watched as Astral and Yuma became two beams of red and blue light, and combining. In a bright golden flash, I heard Astral's voice: _ **When two distant souls become one, the power of Zexal is revealed; go**_ **Zexal Morph** _ **!**_

 __When the light faded, Yuma and Astral were now one person. Standing in red and white armor, the morph had Astral's eyes, along with gold hair and a golden aura to match.

"That's the most incredible thing I ever witnessed! I can sense this duel is about to get even **more** intense!" Alito exclaimed, and he meant it.

Shark hummed, "Looks to me that Yuma and Astral may still have a fighting chance."

Tori was eagerly cheering Yuma on as he activated the Xyz Treasure spell to draw a card for every Xyz monster on the field. After drawing his two cards, he performed his Chaos Xyz Evolution with Utopia, ranking it up to rank 5 Number C39: Utopia Ray.

Tori and "Ray" wondered why Yuma summoned Utopia Ray and lost 2500 atk. Shark knew what they were doing as much as they did: Star Cestus can only use its ability if the enemy has more atk, but they were now the same. Yuma and Alito ordered their monsters to attack; both of them, unbeknownst to each other, were planning to use the exact same card to return their monsters after they destroyed each other. After they did so, Yuma activated the Xyz Stand spell to revive Utopia Ray without its abilities. Alito laughed, "That's so cool; I guess it's true that great minds think alike, 'cause I did the exact same thing!"

He seemed to catch everyone except me by surprise as he activated his own Xyz Stand to bring back Star Cestus with the same restrictions. Since Utopia Ray couldn't attack at the moment, Yuma ended his turn with two facedowns.

I felt Girag's mind standing just out of sight from the others, resenting that all Alito cares about is dueling. Alito declared that this is a duel he always dreamed of, and though Yuma was "feeling the flow," he was feeling fierce. His Baria Lapis appeared on his right wrist in an orange wrist cuff with a spike that went down his forearm. Using the crimson crystal, he performed a Barian Battlemorph, entering his true form. Girag couldn't believe Alito had to go to such extremes to win. Now in his Barian form, Alito may have looked scary, but he still had his childish mind that was so much like Yuma. Releasing his Barian aura, he claimed that it was much better, though Shark didn't consider it an improvement. Yuma was thinking, _He's gonna be even tougher to stop now, but we've gotta find a way._

Alito drew and also activated Xyz Treasure to draw two more cards. He then used Rank-Up Magic Barian's Force, turning Star Cestus into rank 5 Battlin' Boxer Comet Cestus. Using an OLU, Comet Cestus could destroy Utopia Ray, dealing damage equal to its atk. Fortunately, Yuma activated the trap Overtraining to protect his monster. Alito called it a "clever move" before having Comet Cestus attack Utopia Ray with Celestial Burst. Yuma did save Utopia Ray, but his LP was now down to 200. Alito put down one facedown and ended his turn.

Astral was pretty impressed at Yuma and Alito being so alike, considering him a worthy foe that deserved their best. I began to hear Astral again: _ **A truly powerful duelist can shape the outcome of a duel; he can even generate the very card he needs to draw**_ _._

With that, he and Yuma performed a Shining Draw and summoned lvl 5 ZW Eagle Claw, who didn't need a tribute as Alito had at least 2000 LP more than they did. Eagle Claw was equipped to Utopia Ray, who got boosted by 2000 atk to 4500. The two of them were ready to attack when Alito used Counterpunch's ability from his Graveyard to use Battle Rush. Yuma activated Eagle Claw's ability to stop the trap and continue the attack. Alito was just about to use Corkscrew Counter when Yuma activated Last Chance to utilize Alito's Counter Clash and destroy the trap. Utopia Ray destroyed the over-hundred with Eagle Counter Magnum, followed by Rising Sun Eagle Slash. Alito flew into the wall as his LP dropped to zero, and Yuma won.

The Barian sphere field disappeared as Yuma and Astral split again, and we all took off our gazers and I climbed down from the roof. Yuma, worried for his Barian friend lying on the ground, rushed up to Alito with me not far behind. Yuma helped him up as the young Barian held onto his arms for support. He chuckled softly, "Now that duel was truly epic."

Yuma smiled down at him softly, "Yeah, but our next one... will be even more." Alito hanged his head, shaking it with a sad smile. "What do you mean? Is there something wrong?"

Alito turned toward the blue spirit, who hovered about a yard away. "Hey Astral, my Number belongs to you now." Astral stretched out his hand to take the Number, but nothing happened.

"I cannot absorb Alito's Number!" Astral remarked, looking at his empty palm.

I concluded, "That must mean Astral can only take the original 100 Numbers; Over-Hundred Numbers don't apply." As I turned around, I noticed that "Ray" was gone, and an Overlay Network opened behind Alito. Without Yuma's help, Alito shakily got to his feet, knowing he had to leave "It's time for me to go; goodbye, and thank you."

He disappeared into the Network as Yuma begged, "Wait; don't go!"

"He has to," Astral figured, but was cut off when an explosion of pain came from Astral's chest. He fell kneeling on the ground, flickering and not responding to anyone. Everyone except Rio could see him, and instantly knew something was wrong. Getting past Yuma, I knelt in front of him, putting my hand on his forehead. I transferred a thought to him: _I'll help you back into the key; you can rest in there._

He mentally complied, morphing into a small, glowing ball of blue light. I stood, turning back to Yuma and holding the orb up to his key as it was pulled into the green gem. I used **Shadow Summon** to bring out Koumori Dragon and mounted onto it.

"If you'll excuse me," I told, "I have something else to take care of, assuming it hasn't already happened." After that, I flew off to the BARian, in hopes that Alito hasn't already been mauled.

I got there just as Vector's Barian form was about to fire a ball of energy, Alito already on the ground. I had Koumori swoop in there as I shot a **Shadow Stream**. The shot was successful, stopping the fired orb and effectively blowing it up just as it was fired. I jumped off of my dragon, crystallizing my scythe and ready to face off Vector. He seemed to understand my body-language as I held the scythe blade-up at him.

"So it _is_ you," he confirmed in his warped voice, "And it seems that you have also broken the seal." I knew exactly what he was talking about, and what he wanted me to do: go into a blind rage and attack recklessly. Instead, I swung upwards, causing a purple wave of energy to fly at him as I heard, _**Shadow Shockwave.**_ He got the message as the wave carved the wall above him, disappearing into another Overlay Network.

I was relieved that Vector was gone, letting my scythe dematerialize as I walked up to Alito. I placed a hand on his chest, glad that his heart was still beating.

"Don't worry, Alito," I whispered, "I'll go get Mizar; he'll know what to do." Then, I mounted back onto Koumori and went off to find that blonde Barian.

I looked through Central Park, where Mizar was currently in a tree. My dragon growled to make him look at us, and he didn't look too surprised seeing it.

"What do you want, Phantom?" he questioned in a cold tone, though his mind was curious and somewhat worried. I **Shadow Summoned** Curse of Dragon and ordered in an emotionless tone, "Just get onto Curse; I, Star, will show you when we get there." He rolled his eyes, jumping onto the yellow dragon's back, and we both flew back to the BARian, where Girag was kneeling by an unconscious Alito.


	13. I Knew What Was Hidden

By the time the three of us were settled down - and I finished my explanation of Phantoms - it was night. From what I read from Girag, all Alito could get out was something about Ray, whom I knew the truth about. Alito himself was lying on one of the mats inside the BARian, and the other two were pretty upset. Mizar attempted to act aloof and that he didn't need me to tell him of the attack. But I could tell that inside he was grateful that I notified him of his injured comrade. Yuma wasn't going to like hearing about this; he might not believe me that Ray is Vector, and he ambushed Alito.

Mizar, kneeling just across from where I sat, addressed me and Girag. "Alito losing his battle to Yuma Tsukumo and then getting attacked is most troubling news. How could he be so reckless?... He was lucky you found him." He used a slightly hardened voice, but his tone softened at the last sentence.

Girag recalled him discovering Alito as he growled, "I'm gonna make this right." The blonde stood, meeting Girag's vengeful expression with his own cobalt gaze.

"Do not forget, Girag; we now only have one Barian sphere cube in our possession." Girag returned the look, eyes glowing red.

"Yeah, and I'll use that cube to avenge Alito; I can't wait till I get to duel that punk."

"No Girag; do not allow emotions to cloud our goals. We are here to retrieve Yuma's Numbers, not to get revenge. Is that clear?"

Girag turned, peeking over his shoulder and lied, "Uh, yeah; crystal." I planned to say that he was lying and disappear into the shadows before a hit could land, but they were talking too fast for me to worm into it.

"I am glad you understand our priorities. I am returning to Barian world and taking Alito - and this Phantom - with me. You will remain here alone; do not fail us Girag." Mizar used his power to pick up Alito; I made the **Shadow Gateway** \- which is basically what they call an Overlay Network. "Remember, Barian world is counting on you to succeed." Mizar reminded the Barian warrior before we went into the portal.

 _What could've happened? I do not understand,_ I heard from Mizar as we were in the vortex.

"Understand what?" I inquired, making him noticeably tense up. He looked at me without turning his head, "If the place where Girag and Alito were was so isolated, how could someone know about it and slip in to attack our comrade?"

I answered, "It's because a 'comrade' turned traitor on you and the others; and I saw exactly who did it."

He turned to me with wide eyes; that seemed to catch his attention. His mind went from calm to a whirling tornado of shock and curiosity as he listed his suspects.

 _A comrade turning_ traitor _?! And_ Star _\- of all people - knows who did it? Who could it have been? Girag didn't seem to know about it; I didn't either before she told me. It could have even been Star herself... No, that's ridiculous; if she_ was _the one who did it, she wouldn't have reported it to me. Dumon is far too caring of everyone to deliberately commit something this aggressive. Of course, Nash and Marin are still MIA; but even if they_ did _return, they wouldn't do this in millennia. That only leaves Vector to be the backstabber, which in reality does not surprise me._ I began to see multiple memories from Mizar of Vector repeatedly bursting into fits of maniacal laughter. Both that and the crazed look in his eyes when I saw him were telltale signs that he was undeniably insane. Not to mention any of his thoughts that I read made me sick to my stomach. He was about to make his guess when we got to the other side of the vortex, on Barian world.

Still keeping Alito airborne, Mizar went into his Barian form, with the same yellow cloak that Yinlong saw when he took Tachyon. Speaking of whom, she was out and about the moment we got there, hissing in demand of an explanation. Mizar appeared to notice her there, because he assured, "Do not worry, dragoness. I let my Tachyon Dragon roam free in the Shadow Realm, and I only retrieve it when a challenge approaches." Yinlong accepted his explanation with a slight warble and relaxed, stopping her little hissy fit and leaving.

I looked down at myself, seeing that I was in the same cloak as when I first came here. Mizar was rather impressed, even though my cloak was rather ordinary compared to the ornate Barian cloaks. Mine had no gems or claw-like headpiece on it.

"Alright," I addressed the dragon tamer, "We should go tell Dumon about our little incident. By the way," I added, "Your suspicions are correct."

I looked over at Alito, seeing him in his Barian form as well, though still unconscious. Mizar sighed in his warped voice, "Let's get this over with."

I scanned the area, listening for any of Dumon's thoughts. I also kept a sharp eye out for any of his duel spirits. After a bit of walking, I was able to see and hear both. I began to hear Dumon thinking about Nash and Marin again as Number 102: Star Seraph Sentry, hovered above. I tapped Mizar's shoulder and pointed to where Sentry was, "Is Dumon over in that direction?" He nodded and walked in that direction with me not far away.

 _If you ask me, 'Star' is a rather odd name,_ Mizar's brain contemplated.

"Not as odd as being named _after_ one." I snapped in response. The tamer tensed up slightly and dropped his head in dismay.

"Touche." When we both got there, we saw Dumon looking through a Baria crystal like a screen. The crystal showed Yuma and "Ray" dueling Girag in a sphere field, and Astral looked really weak. After setting Alito down, Mizar tapped at the wall, as if to knock at a door. The display on the crystal vanished as Dumon turned to look at us.

"It's you," he addressed as he recognized me, "The Phantom I met; if I recall correctly, Star is your name." I nodded and stepped to the side, revealing Alito, propped against the wall that Mizar knocked.

"What happened to Alito?" He asked both of us as he approached. Mizar explained, "For some reason, someone deliberately attacked him. Star here confirms my suspicions on who it was."

Dumon's storm-cloud gray eyes widened in shock. I saw from his thoughts that he immediately wanted Alito to be placed in a Baria crystal to recover. Using my own power, I lifted Alito, putting him in a position that I saw in Dumon's mind. Looking for an appropriate crystal, I saw one that the other two considered a good size. Concentrating, I carefully phased Alito inside the levitating crystal, which was as tall as I was. Once he was secured and centered inside the crystal, I released my powers, sealing him in.

I felt Dumon and Mizar watching with new respect towards me and my powers. I turned around and walked back to them, noticing that Dumon didn't have my moon globe.

"Where did you put my moon globe, Dumon?" I inquired. He was just about to answer when we heard small, quick _plip-plop_ noises on the floor. The noises got closer and slightly louder, indicating that something or someone was heading here. I honed in on the source of the sounds, being met with Iris' familiar mind. Seconds after, she came sprinting in, with my moon globe flashing in her hands. Like Dumon, she recognized me on sight and smiled.

"Hi again!" I waved kindly at her, admiring the innocence she radiated, even in a place like Barian world. She explained, "Dumon had me hold onto this for him. I was looking at it when it started flashing like this; I wanted to show it to him. Maybe it's flashing like this because you're here." Iris' thoughts began to wonder about me: _What does she really look like? She seems really friendly; why does she hide herself in that cloak?_ I saw similar thoughts of curiosity in the other two emperors. As I could barely handle it all, I closed my eyes to hold it all back. Using both of my hands, I slowly removed the cloak's hood from my head. The repeated questions immediately stopped cold. When I opened my eyes again, all three of them were staring. Iris' friendly blue eyes were wide with wonder at seeing my exposed face.

I felt Dumon look over my profile, comparing my face to scenes he saw in that crystal screen. Most of the scenes were of me staring daggers at "Ray" without his noticing.

"So it is you," the gray-eyed Barian confirmed, "I know the Phantoms' ways and their fighting tactics. That is why it doesn't surprise me that you only hold aggression towards a particular individual. But what is it about him that agitates you?"

My expression went from calm to dead-serious, "It might not be a good idea to discuss that topic around _her_." I gestured to Iris - who warily noticed Alito sealed in the crystal - to emphasize. Dumon nodded and gently ushered her outside; she was glad to do so upon seeing Alito's current state.

As soon as Iris was out of earshot, Mizar and I were ready to answer Dumon's questions. Said questions as to Alito's assailant and why I keep glaring at "Ray".

"Now," Dumon repeated, "Exactly who attacked Alito?"

Mizar began, "It was one of our comrades." That alone made Dumon even more shocked than he already was.

"What?! Who was it?"

We both replied in unison, "It was Vector."

"Did either of you see it happen?"

I answered, "I saw him attacking Alito with his own Barian power. Alito was already in bad shape, but I was able to stop Vector from dealing a possibly critical blow." Dumon seemed to, in a way, accept my answer.

"Is that why you are agitated by the individual that resembles Vector?"

I shook my head. "There's more to it than that; Ray Shadows _is_ Vector, in human form. I saw that he also had someone seal my powers and change my eye color when I was eight."

Mizar staggered somewhat, "That sounds like a plan Vector had solitarily conjured to be rid of the Choseki family. It happened at least eight years ago, and we considered all three Phantoms deceased... Were you their child?" I stiffened upon hearing the mention of my family name, and I brought my hood back up to hide my tearing eyes.

"I am Star Choseki: daughter of Marina and Tomo Choseki; last of my kind."  
The words I spoke hit both Barians as if I used **Shadow Surge** on them. They stood there, as silent and still as the crystals that covered the floor around us. Dumon's thoughts became slow and awestruck, _All these years and we didn't know that she was still alive. 'Last of my kind'; that single quote says a lot about how few in number the Phantoms have become. Who would've thought that eight years would go by without notice that a plan didn't really succeed?_ I witnessed a memory of Vector telling all of the known emperors that the Choseki family has been completely and utterly demolished. Vector began to blurt out countless insults toward my people. The worst of them was calling us traitors and double-agents - should a Phantom weave into a war. Several other memories turned up of Dumon doing research on Phantoms and their actual fighting tactics. That must be why he knows so much about what I'm doing and why.

We all noticed another Overlay Network opening, and a large form began materializing on the ground. When the shape became recognizable, we realized it was Girag; from the look of him, he lost against Yuma and Vector. He was in really bad shape after being beaten by his own comrade. Remembering that I still had my gauntlet, I lifted my arm, touching the crystal on it with my finger. Out came the familiar Shadow mist that formed a screen-like display. It showed Yuma and "Ray" standing on the roof of Yuma's house. I wasn't able to hear him, but I noticed he wasn't wearing his key. I could, however, still read their thoughts and get the gist of the conversation. Vector was making Yuma believe that he and Barian World are good instead of bad, and hiding it from Astral.

" _This_ is bad," I told the two of them as Dumon put Girag into another crystal.

Mizar - who watched the scene alongside me - inquired, "What were they talking about?"

I bit my lip, "Vector's made a really complex plan, to say the least. He's going to use deception and betrayal to tear Yuma and Astral's bond apart. The reason he took out Alito and Girag was only to avoid complications to his plan." Mizar and Dumon didn't like the sound of that as I touched the crystal again and made the screen disappear.

"Remember," I addressed them, "Even a total stranger who has their sanity is more reliable than a friend who's lost it."

Dumon nodded, "That is a very true saying among Phantoms; precisely why I believe I can trust you." I nodded, admiring that Dumon respected and trusted me. I opened the **Shadow Gateway** , hoping to keep my promise to him as I went home.


	14. But Had to Hide it

I knew I had to find a way to show everyone the truth about Vector. But considering how naive and overly allegiant Yuma is to his friends, it won't be easy to convince him of a betrayal. And Vector having Yuma keep it a secret from Astral doesn't make it any easier for me. As complex as Vector's plan is, it's surprisingly clever and he has all sorts of ways to cover all of its weak points. No doubt exploiting the truth was going to be a challenge in itself, but I'd have to find a way to do it somehow.

However, what I did know was that I was completely exhausted. I spent the entire night speaking with the Barian emperors. I really wanted to do something about my gauntlet, because I _could not_ get it off. It was as if that thing was part of my body the moment it materialized on my arm. But when I concentrated on it, the silver turned into a thin-banded bracelet, with the crystal the same size. Not long after I got back to my house, I managed to get myself cleaned up. Once I got into some nightclothes, I thankfully went to bed, falling asleep instantly.

* * *

(Star Dreaming) _A creepy-looking man was walking through the halls of a hospital. His name appeared to be Chironex, and his footsteps created small amounts of water. A nurse walked up to him, sternly asking where he was going, and that the area was for staff only. The man said he wasn't going anywhere, and that the nurse was going to sleep for a while. Weird tentacles extended from his long sleeves, jabbing the nurse in the back and knocking her out._

 _He continued walking to one of the rooms, his footsteps continuing to form a trail of water. When he found the desired room, he entered it. In the hospital bed was an unconscious Rio, though I don't know how she got that way. His arm raised and the tentacles appeared again with a single thought in his mind: target identified. Yuma, Tori, and Trey suddenly arrived on the other side of the hall. One of the hovering tentacles poked Rio in the neck; a small glint of light appeared where it made contact._

 _The machines connected to Rio went haywire, and Yuma demanded to know what he did. The man turned to Yuma and immediately recognized him. Yuma was confused as to how the stranger knew him and wondered whether he was a Barian. Chironex started to glow, saying that after he was done with Rio's brother, Yuma was next. He then turned into a large sea wasp and faded until he disappeared. Trey realized that he was going after Shark, and they needed to warn him. Yuma tried calling Shark, but he wouldn't answer, much to their frustration. The three of them decided to split up and try to warn him. Tori called the SSNHIC; Trey called his brothers. Before they did so, a familiar mind came in and asked Trey what's wrong._

* * *

(Star) I woke up feeling much better than I had when I first got back home. But when I looked out my window, I saw that I had slept for the entire day. The sun was already going down, and hopefully I didn't worry anyone. I got up to get something to eat after such a long night, mainly because I didn't eat anything since yesterday. But I wasn't ready to go back to sleep again; I wanted to find something out about my family.

After having dinner, I went up into the attic of my house. I found Shadow hunting through some tight spaces, coming out with a rodent in her jaws. At first, I didn't suspect anything, until she turned and looked at me. Then, I noticed that her eyes were now the exact same color as my own. The spirit of Dark Magician came out of my deck.

 _ **That was my handiwork,**_ he explained and gestured to my cat. ** _You're father wanted you to have a companion to come home to. On their orders, I enchanted a cat to have the same features as you. It was in the Shadow Realm while you grew up, so it wouldn't age and it'd be there when the time came._**

 ****I smiled wistfully at the memories of my parents before the incident. They really thought of everything for when I'd come to Heartland City.

After he finished explaining, the Spellcaster went back to his card. Living up to its card info, there was a Wretched Ghost of the Attic up here. It seemed pretty happy that someone of the Choseki family now lived in the house. I asked the little spirit to help me sort things out in the attic, which it happily agreed. Most of what I was able to find included some old ancestry records. After a few minutes of searching, the little Fiend found a journal shared by my parents. It gladly handed it to me as I patted it on the head and went downstairs.

Once I was settled in a couch in the living room, I opened the journal to see what it read. I used one of the moon globes for lighting. My parents seemed to alternate writing in it, and the first page was written by my mother. The next page, my father.

 _ **Marina:**_ _Tomo and I have decided to name our baby girl after her first word: Star. Even from birth, neither of us can tell what sort of power she has. She seems to already be making good friends with duel spirits, just like her father. But at the same time, her oddly-colored eyes hold a gaze much deeper than normal. She also seems to have odd seizures at the exact same time as I do, and I can see the future. But the Great Mother was killed 10 years ago by scientists that hate our people. Yet Star shows signs of all three possible powers, and the shadows dance around her. Could the Shadow Realm have chosen our Star to be the next ruler?_

 _ **Tomo:**_ _We decided to bring our little Star to visit an old friend. He seemed quite intrigued with our little girl, as was his two sons. Star had already taken a liking to the older son when they first saw each other. The way they were both looking at each other was a sight to see. The two of them had the exact same look in their eyes, though their eye colors were different. Our daughter has indigo irises, but the scleras are lavender. The oldest son has blue eyes, and is otherwise normal. Marina already told me about her various signs of powers. Unfortunately both of us are stumped in that category._

I turned the page, and a picture fell out of the journal. The photo was of me as a baby staring into a familiar boy's eyes. After looking a little closer, I realized who it was: Quinton. Both of our hairstyles at the time were a lot shorter; but our eyes were still the same. In the background was my mother next to Byron, who had a familiar boy on his shoulder. When I flipped the photo to the back, the names were written, and the familiar boy was Thomas, aka Quattro. I was barely a year old when it was taken, so Michael (Trey) wasn't around yet.

I was thunderstruck at what I had discovered in that photo. Quinton and I had known each other - our _families_ knew each other - even back then. Now that I think about it, that explains how I knew where to find them when phantomized. But does their father remember those times when we lived here, before my parents' souls vanished? I sure hope so; that would be a big help in reconnecting our families. I was hoping to read more, but I didn't want to sleep the day away again. So I dimmed the moon globe and got whatever rest I could.

* * *

When I got up the next morning, I decided to roam the city for a while. Tori called and told me of events in Yuma's classes I'd be better off not seeing. I knew that Heartland Academy was having a special event soon enough that required costumes. Good thing I already got one after poking around in the attic. It seemed to describe me quite well, as a monster from my own deck.

As I was roaming the rooftops, I started to notice a pair of mechanical wings flying above. He seemed to be sulking about Kite not letting him take a break. It didn't get much better when something covered his lenses and made him crash-land into a fountain. When I went over to exactly where he landed, I found it was the romantic area of town. He was about to take off again when Lillybot rushed by and crashed into him. He yelled a few offensive things (for robots), but looked a little love-struck when he made eye contact with Lilly. He tried to apologize, when Lilly knocked him aside and went back to the Tsukumo residence. Orbital looked like he just got dumped; _poor bot_.

I followed him back to Kite's laboratory, waiting in a nearby tree. A while later, Kite came out looking rather disappointed. The source was that he believed Orbital was daydreaming.

"Hey," I greeted, making him look up at me.

"Hello, Star," Kite replied.

I revealed, "I actually know the reason why Orbital is... out of focus lately."

"Really; what is it?"

"Let's just say that he's 'taken a shine' to Lillybot. He has a crush on a female litterbot that lives with Yuma's family."

"Did he crash-land in Romance Park?" I nodded, finding the name of the place pretty self-explanatory. "Just what we need," he sighed with clear sarcasm. I shrugged innocently.

"I guess this is what happens, when you give love a _bot_ name."

* * *

Next morning, I went back to Romance Park, seeing that Orbital was also there. I stayed atop a building so he wouldn't notice I was there. He was watching that weird romance movie that always plays in that park, and just discovered that he was in love with Lillybot. He wanted to know her name, thinking it was beautiful _"like her perfectly stainless-steel exterior."_ He just wanted to find her and declare his love for her.

Speaking of whom, Lilly was hurrying home from a shopping trip judging by the bags she was holding. In the collision, she dropped her shopping list from Haru. To any newbie to Yuma's crew, the list would look like a distress call. Trust me, it isn't; it's just an abbreviation method that Haru uses. Unfortunately, Orbital didn't know that yet and only read: SA-VE M-E. He thought that his first crush was in danger, and followed Lilly to Yuma's house. Severely misreading the list, he started considering Yuma a villain. He thought of Yuma being a big bad boss to Lilly, which I know full well is a false accusation. I tried throwing small crystals to get his attention, but kept missing. He started calling Yuma a monster and vowed revenge. I sighed deeply; _this is already getting out of hand._

When I got over to HLA, I stayed outside the open window to hear everything. Yuma was ready to have a duel with "Ray" when Orbital called Yuma by name. He asked the cape-wearing robot, "Where's the costume party?" The silver bot denied of any costume party and challenged Yuma to a duel.

"If I win, y-you must release your robot prisoner."

Yuma cocked his head, "You mean Lillybot?"

Orbital sighed dreamily, "Her name is Lillybot. Lillybot, I've never heard a more beautiful sound. Release my Lillybot you scoundrel; you got that!?"

Yuma replied with a confused "no" while Tori and I looked on disapprovingly. Orbital clarified that Lilly was on the line and they were "dueling for her freedom."

After school, we brought Lilly and went to the meadow where Orbital was waiting. He still didn't understand that he misread a shopping list. He claimed that he would "save" Lilly from Yuma's "reign of tyranny." Yuma didn't get the gist of it, but was ready to duel. Astral came out and recalled, "Yuma, I have seen you lose to a vending machine. Are you sure this is wise?"

I laughed at the comment, finding it none too surprising as Yuma said he was sure. The two fired up their d-pads and gazers, ready to duel. Tori whispered, "You should probably get Kite; he might want to see this. Besides, Lilly isn't in any kind of danger with Yuma. What could have happened to make Orbital think like that?"

I replied, "Long story short, he misread a shopping list and thinks Lilly's in danger. The letters that were on the list spelled out 'save me.' I was going to get Kite either way, Tori; this is getting way out of hand."

Tori nodded in agreement and approval of what I said. So I turned and teleported over to Kite's lab. Just as I figured, Kite was just outside his lab, wondering where his robotic assistant went. I tapped his shoulder to get his attention, making him turn around.

"Do you know where that bot has gone?" he questioned automatically. I nodded, "He's dueling Yuma over on the other side of town." I **Shadow Summoned** our ace dragons. "I'll fill you in on the way there." He nodded as we mounted our dragons, and we flew over to the duel, with me explaining the whole situation.

By the time we got there, we activated our gazers to see the duel so far. Orbital had his Googly-Eyes Drum Dragon against Yuma's three instrumental Djinns. From what I could see in the spectators, Yuma had slight trouble with it, which I reported to Kite. But we got there just in time to see Yuma pull a triple attack with his Djinns and claim victory. Not long after, a weird beam fell from the sky and caused a small explosion as Orbital's backup plan. Since that ultimately failed, Tori cleared things up and properly introduced the two bots. With that, Kite and I both went back to our homes on our dragons.


	15. Some Family Secrets

The next morning, I was jumping the rooftops going to HLA as usual. I noticed Yuma running top speed while shouting, "I'm late _again_! Why didn't you wake me up, Astral!?"

Astral came out just behind him and answered, "For an hour, I said, 'Yuma, wake up.'"

"Well you should've said it _louder_!"

Bronk started skateboarding past, knowing that he was going to be first in their usual race. But a duck family crossing his path made him stop so abruptly he got thrown off.

"Now that was a wipe-out," Rio commented on Bronk's crash. Bronk jumped back up only to realized his arm got scraped from the fall. As a kind gesture, Rio wrapped the scrape in a piece of cloth. After she walked away, Bronk started mooning over Rio _again_ , oblivious to Yuma riding away on his skateboard.

While I stayed just outside the open window to listen, Tori started talking about a project due next week. She said Bronk's name, but got no reaction from him.

"Earth to Bronk," Tori attempted. "Come in."

Cathy tried, "They're giving away donuts in the cafeteria, Bronk. All you can eat; first come, first serve."

Flip concluded, "Nothing." When Bronk dreamily sighed Rio's name, all of us sweatdropped, not surprised.

"Boy, Bronk has got it," Caswell mused, "Real bad."

Tori got his attention by suggesting him to ask her out, though Bronk was worried she doesn't like him. Everyone gave their opinions, but what really stuck out was Shark being her twin brother. Flip suggested Bronk earning Shark's respect, with "Ray" finding a duel making the most sense. I witnessed a thought of Shark being defeated and giving Bronk his sister's hand. Then a wedding scenario of Rio and Bronk getting married appeared. As I was working off the nausea from those scenes, Bronk went off to challenge Shark to a duel. Yuma - of course - was too busy chowing down and didn't hear anything in the conversation.

Out of curiosity, I secretly teleported to the roof to hear Shark's reaction. As I expected, Shark denied Bronk's challenge, saying that only Yuma comes close to being good enough. I knew that he meant that only Yuma was good enough as a _duelist_ , not as Rio's boyfriend. But he was so vague about it, that Bronk took it the wrong way. Caswell and Flip - who were eavesdropping from just behind the door - also misunderstood. I saw yet another nauseating scene of Rio and _Yuma_ getting married. Bronk was locked in a daze as Shark casually walked away. Caswell and Flip decided to show it, and posted it on Flip's blog: "Flip's Daily Quips."

* * *

The next day, Everyone was in a frenzy from hearing the gossip from the two boys, Tori especially. I also got the news from my bracelet, which behaved like a d-pad infused with Shadow Energy. Tori and Cat looked pretty ticked about it, while I kept getting tormented by their thoughts. Everyone's over-imaginative scenarios were wreaking havoc on my stomach. _And I just got over the drama of the robotic love-story, too!_

To avoid any more cheesy-queasy thoughts from those guys, I wandered off to find Rio. It didn't take long to track her down, but all of HLA seemed to read Flip's blog. Everyone was assuming that Rio and Yuma were dating. We got up to one of the outdoor halls to hear Bronk revealing what Shark said to Yuma.

"So that's why everyone thinks we're dating?" She questioned, her voice rising, "I should've known that Reginald was at the center of all this."

After school, Rio called Shark and had the whole gang meet up at the tennis court. When he came, Rio challenged her older twin to a duel. Shark mused, "You too? A lot of that going around today." Rio snapped that she was serious and showed Shark the post on Flip's Daily Quips.

"Do you think _this_ is funny?!" She retorted.

"I don't even know what 'this' is."

Rio admonished that Shark couldn't make decisions for her. Though Bronk tried to weave in, Rio shot him down. Her brother was about to walk away when Rio teased, "Too scared? I know how you can get scared sometimes. It's like your strange fear of _onions_ ; maybe I'll have Flip blog all about it."

The very mentioning of it flipped the switch on Shark, and made him glare at his sister. He growled threateningly, "I'm serious Rio. _Not. Cool._ "

Rio returned the glare, "Well if you don't want the whole school knowing about that, then you've gotta duel me."

Astral appeared next to Yuma and commented, "A battle between brother and sister; we should wear ear plugs."

I laughed slightly at the last part; he probably just wanted to make a joke. The twins readied their d-pads, and everyone fired up their d-gazers to spectate. I teleported to the roof of the building to get away from their nauseating thoughts that kept replaying. Once I was sitting on the roof, I also synced into the duel.

"You've never beaten me in a duel," Shark reminded, "That's not gonna change; not today."

He had first draw and summoned lvl 3 Big Jaws. He also special summoned lvl 3 Shark Stickers from his hand, overlaying his monsters to Xyz summon rank 3 Aeroshark. Yuma was pretty surprised that Shark Xyz summoned on his first turn. Shark used an OLU to deal Rio 400 damage for each of his four cards. He added, "This is what happens when you bring up the onions. Go Torpedo Take Down!"

Rio brought out her lvl 4 Guard Penguin to shield her from the effect and stick around. Shark played his Aqua Gate spell to negate one attack for every facedown on his field. He ended his turn with two facedowns and a very impressive defending tactic.

Rio took her draw and summoned lvl 4 Blizzard Falcon, overlaying it with her Guard Penguin to Xyz summon rank 4 Zerofyne. She activated its ability Perfect Freeze, using an OLU to negate all faceup card effects until the start of her next turn. And for every frozen card, Aeroshark lost 300 atk for each of two cards, lowering its atk to 1300. She stopped to think, _Wait, this is too easy. Shark_ had _to have known I'd summon Zerofyne. Is Aqua Gate a decoy? Of course, I've gotta switch gears and focus on those two facedowns._ She equipped Wings of Silence onto Zerofyne, bringing its atk to 2300 and protecting it from spells and traps. She ordered her Ice Beast to attack Aeroshark with Icicle Storm, destroying it and lowering Shark's LP to 3000. Shark activated the Ghost Salvage trap to bring back the Submersible Carrier, along with Big Jaws and Shark Stickers without their effects. He then activated Full-armored Xyz, helping him automatically Xyz summon even if it wasn't his turn. He overlaid Big Jaws and Shark Stickers again to Xyz summon rank 3 Black Ray Lancer. Unbeknownst to everyone else, the Beast-Warrior turned to me and saluted, as I remembered him. Full-armored Xyz also allowed Shark to equip Aeroshark to Lancer and combine their atk, raising it to 4000. Definitely unnerved, Rio ended her turn with one facedown.

Shark drew and activated the Break Stream spell, preventing Rio from activating any cards when Lancer attacks. With Aqua Gate's effect still on ice, Rio had no way of shielding herself. Shark had Lancer attack Zerofyne with Shimmering Spear Slash. He then activated Break Stream's other effect, to get rid of Rio's facedown when Zerofyne was destroyed. Shark remembered that Rio needed him to build her deck when they were kids. Rio wanted to prove that she didn't need his help to duel anymore. She activated Ice Fire egg: the card that was destroyed by Break Stream. It activated when it was destroyed and let Rio bring back Zerofyne without its atk and def and changed it to lvl 5. Shark placed a facedown to end his turn.

Before she took her draw, Rio thought, _If I don't draw the card I'm hoping for... or if Reginald already knows what I'm planning -_

"I bet I know what you're thinking right now," Shark interrupted, "You're worried that I'm three steps ahead of you. That this facedown card will activate as soon as you make your move. That's what you're thinking, right sis? Of course, 'cause you doubt yourself. Self-doubting wannabes don't win duels! And that's why you always lose to me; because you don't trust your instincts! You're not gonna win, you're just gonna keep second-guessing yourself into corners and you know it!"

Bronk denied what Shark said; he encouraged Rio to take a chance and even stole Yuma's "High-five the sky" line.

Rio admired Bronk's words and made her draw, which was just the card she needed. She activated Land of Frozen Flames, making her monster count as two to Xyz summon. She overlaid two Ice-Beast Zerofynes to Xyz summon rank 5 Ice Princess Zereort. She used its ability, using an OLU to zero out Lancer's attack points with Subzero Subtraction. Zereort attacked the downed Beast-Warrior, but Full-armored Xyz let Shark send Aeroshark to the Graveyard and keep out Black Ray Lancer. Even so, his LP plummeted like the temperature to 500 as Rio ended her turn.

"I gotta admit, you really surprised me just now, sis." Shark mused falsely, "Maybe I was wrong; maybe you really are one amazing duelist."

Rio gave in to the facade, taking it as a compliment.

"Get real Rio," Shark burst out, "'An amazing duelist'? I don't think so!" He quickly drew and summoned Drill Barnacle. Then he equipped Xyz Crown onto Lancer, turning its rank into a level and doubling the monster. Land of Frozen Flames also turned Drill Barnacle into two monsters. He overlaid all four monsters to Xyz summon Shark Caesar. By using an OLU, Shark Caesar gained 3000 atk for a grand total of 4800 atk. The king of the deep attacked Zereort with Emperor's might, destroying it and dropping Rio's LP to zero.

I teleported back down to the rest of the crew, whose minds were at a standstill. All Shark had to say was that Rio was improving.

"But still," Rio snapped, "If you think I'm gonna become Yuma's girlfriend just because you said I should, you're crazy!"

Shark echoed, "Did you say 'become Yuma's girlfriend'? Why would I think that?... Hold on, all I said to Bronk is that Yuma's the only duelist around who can _kinda_ keep up with me."

Caswell's head cocked, "So then -"

"- It was our misunderstanding?" Flip finished, also cocking his head.

Rio sighed, "Well, _this_ is embarrassing." Bronk complimented Rio about the duel, and offered to be her dueling partner. And if she won, he would maybe buy her an ice cream. "Sounds like a good deal to me," Rio concluded, "Now, there's something I need to go deal with." Flip and Caswell were attempting to sneak off. "Guys," Rio asked, making them freeze. They turned around to see Rio's venomous look, "About that little rumor you started..." The two boys grabbed each other, screaming and crying in a panic. They knew they were in for it now!

We all got the message and scurried off before things got too crazy. We decided to leave Rio alone to deal her punishment on the boys. In the meantime, I had the others come over to my place for a visit. I figured they deserved to know the truth. For starters, when I brought them over, they all said it was a haunted house. Anyone who tried to build an establishment on the property would get chased off by odd-looking monsters. From their memories, I could tell exactly what those monsters were.

"Don't worry about it, guys," I assured them, "The Arcana Forces and Silver spirits were waiting for my family to return. Or - since my parents are likely to be gone by now - specifically me."

Everyone seemed to accept the fact that I was descended from Sartorius. But they were pretty stunned when I read my parents' journal to them. They were rather stumped when I read my father's entry to them; they didn't quite know who my father was talking about. But Shark seemed to figure it out first, "It sounds like Quattro's family at the time."

Yuma countered, "But it said _two_ sons; Trey, Quattro, and Quinton make three." Shark shook his head.

"But don't forget, Star's a year older than Trey is. She was barely a year old when it was written. That would mean that it happened before he was even born. That would only leave Quattro and his older brother." I was impressed with Shark for following the threads so easily.

After reading the entries, I showed them all the photo as proof. At first, they didn't think it was the Arclight family, until Tori and Astral saw it. Tori confirmed, "That really is you and Quinton looking at each other."

Astral added, "And if I'm not mistaken, Quattro is in the background with his father and your mother."

Shark took a peek for himself, "So that's what your families looked like back then, huh?"

I replied, "Yeah, that was us. The Arclights were the only ones my family could trust not to betray us. I just hope that at some point, they'll remember my family." After I finished, everyone went back home, glad to know more about me and my family. Even Shark appreciated knowing the connection between the Arclight and Choseki families.


	16. Had to be Revealed

The next day was that special event at HLA I was talking about. I used a **Shadow Gateway** to get there when I was in my costume. It had a long, jet-black cloak with silver fabric bordering the arm and neck areas. Gold fabric at the chest was fashioned into an eye shape embedded in the silver at the neck. A silver circlet went around my head with a green cat's-eye crystal on the forehead. To complete the look, two dark brown feathers were attached to the circlet by the stems, hanging down. Though I may not have had the hairstyle of the duel monster, it looked very nice. Taking care to stay in the less crowded areas, I made my way to the Monster Cafe.

When I got to the Cafe, I heard and saw Cathy and Tori in there. Cathy was dressed as her Cat Girl, and Tori was dressed as Yuma's Gagaga Girl. They gladly welcomed me in, and they both seemed to like my costume.

"You look like the Witch of the Black Forest," Cathy observed, recognizing my cosplay. Tori nodded, "That's actually pretty fitting after everything we learned about you."

I nodded in agreement as Yuma came in, also complimenting me for my costume. He was dressed as his Temtempo the Percussion Djinn, though for a downtrodden reason. Tori went back to taking orders from customers in the Cafe. I was standing in the corner when, out of nowhere, the wall not far away from me blew up. In the giant hole was a pink-clad girl astride a hovercraft cannon that she probably fired at the wall. Her name - appropriate to her actions and short temper - was Anna Kaboom.

"What's up, Tori," she grinned mischievously, "I heard your school's having a Fun Fair, so I thought I'd crash the party."

"Anna, what were you thinking?" Tori demanded.

"Yeah, this isn't a drive-thru restaurant," Yuma added.

"Hey Yuma," Anna greeted, running to him before stopping and laughing, "Wait... when did you become a circus clown?"

"I'm Temtempo the Percussion Djinn."

"What made did you pick _that_ getup?"

Yuma hanged his head, "When I got to the costume shop, this is all they had left."

"Purr-sonally," Cathy viewed, "I think Yuma's costume is extremely rockin'! *sigh* He looks absolutely purr-fect."

I walked up to them, "My costume is just something I found in the attic at my place. This Witch of the Black Forest outfit doesn't seem half-bad if you ask me."

Anna turned to look at me, slightly surprised at how tall I was compared to her. She looked over my costume with her eyes, silently impressed. I began to hear shouting from down the hall, recognizing "Ray's" voice and thoughts. He came dashing through the door, dressed as Dandylion, with news for Yuma.

"What's a Couples' Duel?" Yuma asked as "Ray" finished telling the news. He explained, "In this tournament, teams each made up of a guy and a girl will battle it out. Whoever's left standing at the end gets to take on two pro duelists. Brook and Mayday Walker are a husband and wife team who have won a ton of tournaments together. If you want to test your skills, this is a golden opportunity."

"A chance to duel against two pros," Yuma grinned, "Count me in!"

"Cool," the carrot-head replied, "But just remember that it's a _Couples' Duel_ tournament. Which means you can't enter without a partner. You should sign up though, 'cause I heard Brook Walker's planning to retire soon. And this may be your last chance to duel her."

Anna didn't seem to like the part of Brook Walker retiring. I could see that she personally knew the pro duelist as a mentor and close friend. She mentally exploded, grabbing "Ray" by the collar and lifting him off his feet.

"Brook would _never_ quit dueling!" she exclaimed, squeezing a bit too hard. Yuma tried calming her down.

"Hey; don't hurt the messenger."

"Take that back!" she ordered, paying no mind to Yuma. Her victim was literally choked up.

"Okay... but it won't change the truth."

She dropped her grip, looking down at the floor. _I don't understand; Brook_ loves _dueling. Why would she give it up?_ She turned to Yuma, "Yuma, I want to be your partner for the Couples' Duel."

"You can't enter the duel, Anna; I'm afraid you simply aren't eligible to be Yuma's dueling partner." Tori's friend Summer informed from near the door. The other girl, Jen, added, "You have to be currently enrolled as a student in this school to participate."

I knew that those two also meant that _I_ couldn't be part of the tournament either. I was fine with it anyway, since I didn't want anyone to be scared of me or my monsters. Anna - however - didn't like the idea of being a student at HLA.

I decided to go over to the drama club room of the school, where Rio was taking part in a play. I stood near the back of the room with Shark. He was also impressed by the authenticity of my costume. He was a little irritated by the royal romance theme of the play. Rio was playing the princess of the story, while one of the boys who was clearly crushing on her was the prince.

"Greetings, oh brave prince," Rio purred from the top of a staircase, "Long have I yearned for the hour of your arrival. The anguish of our last parting has lain heavily upon my mournful heart."

The prince approached Rio on the staircase, taking her hands in his. He cooed, "Dear princess."

Shark groaned in disgust next to me, "This play feels like a dream; a really _bad_ one."

"Chill out, Shark; I think Rio's a natural," Bronk chimed in as I felt his mind come in close. We both looked at his costume and slightly flinched at the design.

"Who're _you_ supposed to be?" Shark asked in surprise. Bronk's costume was a little trashy and seemed to be made of a few cardboard boxes and soup cans.

"I'm Gogogo Golem. What do you think?"

"I think your costume... is even _worse_ than Rio's play!"

" _Quiet_ back there!" Rio yelled a split second after Shark snapped. I ducked my head to dodge Rio's high-heel, which got poor Shark in the head.

"Don't spoil our big romantic scene, or it's _curtains_!" she hollered at her twin. I put a hand on Shark's shoulder.

"Let's get you out of here so you don't take another hit." Shark nodded as I led him out of the drama room and away from Rio's other high-heel. After we got out, I went up to visit the floral design club. Most of the girls there were busy with their arrangements. Caswell was already up there, cosplaying as Gagaga Magician.

"This arrangement is a little formal Caswell," Lotus pointed out. Her customer was a little embarrassed and unnerved about being up here to begin with. The source of it was something that had happened during the day I first came. Caswell looked down, "You think?"

"On the other hand," Lotus added, "... it is also quite sophisticated, just like you. I think it's adorable."

Caswell was taken aback by her words. I could tell that the president of the club had special feelings for the bashful customer. He blushed heavily at Lotus, "Really; you do?"

Meanwhile, I noticed that one of the members was having difficulty with her arrangement. It was an assortment of lavender and moonflower vine with a light blue calla lily. I padded over to her and knelt down in front of her with the vase between us both.

"May I?" I asked her, gesturing to the flowers that she was having such trouble with. She nodded and turned the arrangement over to me.

With a careful hand, I wrapped the moonflower vine around the calla lily's tall, stiff stem. I kept the pure white flowers of the vine facing outward. I also took care not to choke out the leaves of the lily. Then I arranged the lavender stalks so that they surrounded the entwined flower and vine. I turned it back to her when I finished, "What do you think?"

The girl looked over the arrangement, awed by how nice it looked after I was done. She kindly thanked me for helping her with the flowers. I began to hear Lotus approaching me after Caswell left.

"You seem to have talent for floral design, Star," Lotus observed, "I believe you would fit in at our club."

I smiled at the compliment, and bowed to her politely as I stood and left the room. I went down to one of the outdoor food stands and ordered a strawberry milkshake. I noticed something down off in a secluded corner outside the school. I took a peek over there to see what was happening. Flip had some sort of booth with all sorts of posters for the pop-star Scarlet Starling. (I only knew her because it was _always_ somewhere in Girag's mind whenever I saw him.) But it had a dark side, because the Student Council President was also standing there. Flip wasn't looking too brave, since he was probably caught. His thoughts had swapped from his business model - fake concert tickets for rarest duel cards - to one word: _Busted_.

Since I knew what the fuss was about over there, I secretly teleported to the outdoor stage. I stayed up near the roof, where I could easily get a good view. The concert was being held there, and I wanted to look without needing a ticket. Scarlet's singing was pretty nice, and all the students down below were cheering. Some of them were chanting Shark's name, since he was playing electric guitar perfectly in time to the song, along with a female guitarist and male drummer.

Afterwards, I teleported back down to the food stand area, secretly following Yuma, Astral, and "Ray." Yuma ordered something from just about _all_ the food stands. He ate everything: caramel-coated noodles, a cake pop, even a chocolate-covered banana on a stick, among other things. And he was _still_ hungry after eating all that, which slightly weirded me out. _Either Yuma's all-stomach, or he forgot to pack a lunch for the day._ Though the first assumption is somewhat believable, I'm guessing the latter; it wasn't on Yuma's mind. Even Astral noticed he was eating much more than an average person would. Yuma guessed that he was hungrier than most people. Astral assumed that perhaps his stomach simply enjoyed the exercise.

"Hey Yuma," Anna's voice called, getting both their attention and mine. Holding her cannon behind her back, Anna was wearing an HLA first-year uniform. But I could tell that she was really borrowing Tori's uniform to get into the Couples' Duel. Anna explained falsely, "I just enrolled as a student here. And now that I'm officially part of the school, I can enter the Couples' Duel with you." Anna aimed her cannon at Yuma with a harsh threat, "Don't disappoint me, Yuma; or else!"

Yuma put his hands up in clear terror, "Put down the blaster Anna! Okay, we're a team!" I shook my head in disapproval from where they couldn't see me. I went over to just outside where Brook Walker was for the competition. I stayed just outside the closed door, listening.

 _I haven't dueled against students since I was in school. And that was a long time ago,_ I heard Brook speaking her thoughts. The lights went out, much to both of our confusion. I heard a different mind suddenly enter the room through the door, instantly recognizing it. I banged my fist against the door, my powers coarsing through the walls and room. I felt Vector's mind vanish, to my relief, and I left when I heard Mayday coming close. Hoping that I stopped Vector, I teleported back home.

* * *

When I got up to my front door, I noticed a small package on the doorstep. Curious, I picked it up and brought it inside. I opened it on the small table in the living room to see what was inside. I pulled out a lavender moonflower and a blue hydrangea, tied together with red hemp-string. There was also a letter underneath the flowers, written in recognizable blue ink.

 _Dear Star,_

 _We all hope that you are doing well with Yuma and his friends. There is something that we found some time after you left. One of our family photos has a certain someone in the background. I'm quite sure that you would recognize the familiar face in the photo. We were all surprised that we didn't notice it before._

 _I never dreamed I would meet someone now from when I was very young. Even less so that it would be someone like you. But I remember you now, as does my brother and our father. Even though we've changed a good deal since back then, I will always care for you, my ghost princess._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Christopher Arclight_

Quinton wrote that letter; that explains the hydrangea and ink.

The hydrangea symbolizes heartfelt emotion, and gratitude in understanding. The moonflower stands for mysticism and intuition, with strong connection to the night. Of course, red string means two people are soul mates. But if the hydrangea and moonflower represents Quinton and me, the red string must mean _we're_ soul mates. I felt a hint of a blush creep up my face as I recalled the last sentence of the letter. Ignoring the blush, I pulled out the last item: an old, framed picture of the Arclight family.

The faces of them were all familiar to me with the photo of them sitting on a couch. Byron in the center; Chris on the right; Michael displaying a card on the left; Thomas lying by the greyhound on the floor. But looking a bit closer, I noticed what the letter was talking about. Standing behind the couch, - just at Chris' right side - was _me,_ when I was phantomized. I won't lie, I was surprised that I was in the photo. Something about the flash of the camera must've peeked through the seal at the time, because my eyes were their normal colors. I was glad for the package, and put the tethered flowers in a vase on a shelf, with the photo alongside it.


	17. They Don't Know My Secrets

That night, I felt a surge of fear and worry coming from the direction of the pier district. The night seems to drastically sharpen my powers, so I can hear _everything_. Honing in on that mind, I found it was Yuma, following a distress call from "Ray." Curious and suspicious, I phantomized to prepare to follow. With my unleashed powers, I can directly turn my body into my phantomized form with a disintegrating effect. It's actually pretty cool, even though my clothes still turn into a dress. Because of my new power, it's become lavender with an indigo ribbon around my waist; just like my eyes. Phasing through my window, I vanished into the night to follow Yuma.

I flew in secret, staying close on Yuma's trail. I saw the familiar Barian red of a sphere field up ahead, as well as hearing Vector's mind. Yuma and I reached the sphere field, seeing "Ray" fighting a self-made decoy of Vector. "Ray" looked back at Yuma, also failing to notice my presence. I rushed forward, crystallizing my scythe and dashing inside the barrier. I saw in my peripheral vision that I was wearing a dark indigo cloak, patterned with silver specs. To lower any suspicion, I charged at the decoy of Vector with the scythe. Once within range, I swung at the cloaked fake. Though nothing seemed to happen on the outside, I could sense that its soul was cleaved, weakening the decoy.

The apparition disappeared into an Overlay Network, causing the field to fall apart. "Ray" fell down to the ground, collapsing of exhaustion. As I went to the ground, Yuma asked him in worry, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he replied with slight strain.

"Who was that guy?"

"He's the worst Barian of them all, and we've been after him for years: Vector."

The boys had noticed me in the moonlight, still gripping my scythe. Yuma was in awe at my appearance as I stared them down, scanning their minds. I could tell that neither of them knew it was me from my cloak. My scythe seemed to slightly unnerve Vector, as its razor-sharp edge gleamed in the light. The blade seemed to flash, as if it shared my desire to carve into the true enemy. To both of them, I looked like a reaper with my cloak and weapon. But before they found the guts to say something, I dematerialized my weapon and disappeared into the shadows.

The next morning, I could tell that Vector was going to go back to Barian World soon. I'd have to get there first if I was going to find out how Dumon and Mizar would react. I'm pretty sure that they'll keep up the act that they didn't know until the time is right. But I'm also sure that they'll trust me far sooner than they'll ever fully trust Vector. Leaving some food and water for Shadow, I headed for Barian World.

* * *

I remained in the shadows as I listened to the emperors' conversation. I was also in my usual cloak as I was hiding just behind a crystal. Dumon and Mizar were very much on edge as they were watching over Alito and Girag. There were no changes in either of the patients, and I couldn't detect a single thought in their unconscious minds. From my hiding place, I could see and hear everything.

"Yuma Tsukumo and Astral defeated Alito and Girag in the human world," I heard Mizar tell. "They still have not fully recovered from their duels."

"Mizar," Dumon replied. "Now you and I will have to settle this score." A dark, all-too-familiar laugh filled the crystal room.

"What's the matter, Girag; Alito?" Vector mocked. "You look a little under the weather." He appeared on the throne, which I presumed was for Nash, judging from Dumon's memories. "Well, the doctor will see you now." Mizar's eyes glowed red as his surprise was replaced by anger; he and Dumon recognized him. Vector approached the crystals where Alito and Girag were resting and continued. "Pardon me; what did you say? 'We are weak'? 'We do not have the strength to beat them'? 'Can you cure us'? Sorry, I'm just a veterinarian." He kept laughing cruelly as he spoke, causing me and Mizar to seethe with wrath, like we shared the same anger. He rushed at Vector and tried to strike at him with his hand, but Dumon grabbed it and stopped him.

"Stop it, Mizar," he ordered calmly. "This is no time to be fighting each other."

"Well that time is coming," Mizar growled as he pulled back his hand.

"Anytime, Mizar," Vector chimed in cheerfully.

"Nice of you to show up, Vector," Dumon greeted, with a hint of sarcasm. "You have missed a lot. Unfortunately, Yuma and Astral have managed to stop your brilliant plan to have Dr. Faker and Vetrix destroy Astral World." His eyes glowed red as he reprimanded Vector. "But you were off somewhere, not taking responsibility for your failure."

"But I didn't fail," Vector defended. "I was there and this was all part of my plan. Yuma, Astral, Kite, Shark; they're all about to meet their fate together. I know exactly what I'm doing. Trust in me, and soon I will crush them."

Mizar snapped, "No one is going to listen to you!"

"That is enough, Mizar," Dumon interrupted, barring him with his arm. "I am warning you, Vector. No more of your secret stunts or you will answer to me." The two Barians knew about Vector's plan thanks to me, and I could tell that they both despised underhanded tactics; Mizar especially.

Vector laughed darkly. "Come. It's time to begin the end!" I knew it would be a whole new level of bad if I stuck around much longer, so I covertly got out of there in a **Shadow Gateway**.

* * *

I exited the vortex not far from the water tower, where I could feel Yuma's thoughts. From what I could see, "Ray" gave him a few Barian cards, and he was voicing his thoughts from atop the tower. I could also sense the minds of Tori, Cathy, Bronk, Caswell, and Flip hiding up there. Not wanting to be left out, I turned into shadow and scaled the shadows of the tower's frame. When I got as far up as I could get, I was right behind Yuma, just below the water tank. I got up there just in time, because everyone up there was revealing themselves.

"What are you so excited about?" Tori inquired as she slid to Yuma's side, catching Yuma off-guard.

"You're hiding something from us," Cathy observed as she slipped in from the other side.

"It's obvious, Yuma," Bronk revealed as he came up from beneath the platform.

"You might as well face it, Yuma," Caswell teased as he crept out to the other side of the tank.

"You can't keep a secret," Flip grinned as he slid down from atop the tank.

"Not for your life," I added once I glided out from the shadows just behind him. Yuma, seeing that he was surrounded, had no choice but to give up. Realizing his defeat, Yuma told everyone about the cards he got from "Ray" to duel the Barians with. Hoping to end the problems with them as soon as possible, they all decided to help track down the Barians.

We basically spent the rest of the afternoon "Barian hunting," as the others considered. It's just walking through the streets as everyone but Yuma, Tori, and me shouted insulting phrases directed toward the Barians. Personally, I wasn't very comfortable with it; Yuma didn't like it, either. I already knew the truth about the Barians and their dying world. But I couldn't just tell them about it! They'd either not believe me or think I'm a traitor! I'm still pretty new to the crew, and some of Yuma's friends are secretly very skeptical towards me. We kept walking down the street, until Tori pointed and asked nervously, "Guys, what's that?" It appeared to be a fiery orange orb; _it was heading our way!_

Out of instinct, we all ducked away from the orb as it tore through a building. Yuma presumed that it was definitely a bad thing. The orb flew through a strip of land on the other side of the bridge, tearing aside benches and uprooting trees and soil. That was likely only a power display, because it doubled back to land right in front of us. The force and speed of the landing caused a miniature explosion that blew all of us back.

Thankfully, no one got hurt... Well, not badly, anyway. Bronk, Caswell, and Flip were rather dazed from getting blown back. I was fine, along with Yuma and the other girls. Astral appeared, out of worry and confusion. When I turned to see the culprit of that orb, I saw that it was another decoy of Vector. Yuma wanted all of us to run, but I refused to flee.

"You have to run, Star," Yuma asserted. "I don't want anyone to get hurt because of Vector."

"I'm not going to leave you both with a Barian like him," I shot back. "He already took too much away from me: my past, my family, and - ultimately - my true power." Vector cackled insanely as he activated his Barian sphere field. Like what happened with Mizar, I was in the field alongside Yuma and Astral.

"It's been a while since we dueled, Yuma," Vector chuckled.

"What're you talking about?" Yuma demanded. "I never dueled you in my life!"

"How quickly we forget." I began to see memories of Vector possessing Kite's father. "We had lots of fun together when I took over Dr. Faker!"

"What; _you_ were the one who was controlling Dr. Faker?!"

Astral recalled, "I remember that Barian."

"That was just a preview," the Barian clenched his fist at us. "I've come to destroy; to crush you. And not just Astral World; the Human World, too."

"He means it, Yuma," Astral concluded.

"I've heard enough!" Yuma shouted. "This ends right here, right now!" Both of them activated their d-pads as we activated our gazers and Vector's eye turned red.

"You should both prepare for some shocks," Vector commented before he took first draw. He summoned lvl 4 Umbral Horror Ghoul and used its special ability. By zeroing out its atk, Vector summoned lvl 4 Umbral Horror Unform from his hand, also with zero atk. He overlaid the two monsters to Xyz summon rank 4 Number 66: Master Key Beetle. He also activated the Magical Tomb spell to seal away Yuma's Rank-Up Magic: Limited Barian's Force. He then activated Master Key Beetle's effect, using an OLU to ensure that Magical Tomb could never be destroyed. Setting one facedown, Vector ended his turn.

Yuma took his draw and summoned lvl 4 Gagaga Magician. Using the Gagaga Wind spell, Yuma summoned lvl 3 Gagaga Girl with one extra level, raising it to 4. He overlaid his two Spellcasters to Xyz summon rank 4 Utopia. He then activated Gagaga Girl's ability: when used toXyz summon, the opposing monster's atk become zero as Cell Phone Subtraction. Utopia destroyed Master Key Beetle with Rising Sun Slash, sending Vector to the wall as his LP became 1500. But Vector brought it back with its second ability: destroying Magical Tomb and returning Yuma's Rank-Up Magic. Astral was confused with Vector's reckless dueling tactics. Vector activated the trap Corrupted Keys to summon three Umbral Horror Mirage Tokens. On edge about the three little monsters, Yuma ended his turn and got back his card.

Vector drew and activated the spell Umbral Horror Refresh to return his monsters' atk to normal. It restored Master Key Beetle's 2500 atk, with the Mirage Tokens getting the same amount. On top of that, Vector also regains 2500 LP, bringing it back to 4000. He had all three Tokens swarm Utopia despite having the same atk. Complying to Astral's orders, Yuma used both of Utopia's OLU's to stop the attacks from two of the Tokens. Not that it mattered anyway, because the third still got destroyed; Utopia stuck around since only a Number can destroy a Number. But Vector used the Umbral Horror Retaliation spell to destroy Utopia. Master Key Beetle attacked with Key Blast to bring Yuma's LP to 1500, with Vector ending his turn after.

Yuma was about to make a move when "Ray" showed up. He advised Yuma to use his secret weapons: the Barian cards he was given. Yuma nodded, taking his draw and summoning V Salamander, using its ability to return Utopia. He activated his Rank-Up Magic to turn Utopia into rank 5 Utopia Ray V. With the Salamander's other effect, Yuma equipped the monster to his Chaos Number. He also used Utopia Ray V's ability, using its OLU to destroy a monster on the field and deal damage of its atk; somewhat like Yinlong's effect. With Salamander's third effect, all opposing monsters were affected when Yuma used V Salamander Inferno. Vector was blown back as his LP hit zero, and Yuma was shown as the winner. We all came down from the field safely, though Astral didn't like how Yuma kept his second Barian card a secret.

"So Vector," Yuma declared. "Now you know not to mess with Astral and me." To our surprise, Vector started laughing and aimed his hand, causing a blue ghost hand to fly toward Yuma. "Ray" let himself get grabbed instead and was taken captive by Vector. The Barian refused to leave empty-handed, so he took "Ray", threw a card to Astral - Master Key Beetle's card to be exact - and vanished into an Overlay Network. Yuma rushed to Vector attempting to save "Ray", but he was too late. I knew exactly where Vector was heading to complete his plan, and Yuma vowed to save his friend, no matter what. Yuma started calling out for Vector in rage, when I heard Kite flying in.


	18. And it Must Stay That Way

Kite detached from Orbital's glider and landed not far from my left. Tori was rather confused as to what he was doing and why he was here. She made somewhat of an attempt to ask Kite what he was doing here. He didn't reply to Tori's questions and instead approached Yuma.

"Yuma," he questioned. "What's wrong? What happened here?" Yuma rushed up to Kite as I heard Shark also come running in.

"Ray's gone. He's gone! Vector just came and took him away! The Barians have him now. Please Kite, we gotta get him back." He grabbed the blonde's collar in desperation, much to Kite's displeasure. "You gotta help me Kite, I'm begging you! I need your help; please Ki -" Yuma was cut short when Kite slapped him in the face, knocking him to the ground.

"Calm down," Kite admonished calmly. "Control yourself."

"... Sorry," Yuma apologized meekly.

* * *

That night, Kite had brought us to the walled-off area of Heartland and to the intact area of Heartland Tower. By "us" I mean Shark, Yuma, and me. He left the rest of Yuma's friends outside, and Tori and the others were definitely _not_ happy about it. The four of us were in the living room; Kite leaned on the window/wall, Shark was on a couch, Yuma stood between them, and I sat on the opposite couch. Yuma explained to them everything he found out about Vector, even though I already knew about it.

"So wait," Shark inquired once Yuma finished. "This 'Vector' guy who kidnapped Ray; he's the same Barian who controlled Dr. Faker _and_ Vetrix?"

"Yeah," confirmed Yuma. "After we beat him in a duel, I thought for sure he was destroyed." I saw the whole memory replay from all three boys. I remember Vetrix telling me about that duel when I was recovering with his family; the duel must've been brutal for those three.

"Well you were wrong," Kite observed. "And now it seems he's decided to cause some more trouble."

"Indeed he has," I agreed. "I've already seen all sorts of nasty things going on in that psychotic Barian's head. As far as I can tell, none of the other Barians we've met are like that; not even close."

Kite nodded secretly. _Quinton and his family gave us a heads-up on your powers, and I think it's safe to believe you on that._ Neither of the other boys seemed too surprised with what I said; their minds were on other matters.

"Vector messed up my sister and he's gonna pay," snapped Shark as he stood from the couch. "I'll hunt him down like the dog he is."

"Sounds good," Kite approved. "But how're you going to _find_ him? These Barians aren't exactly easy to keep track of."

"Who cares? It's time for this Vector guy to pay! I'm gonna find him and give him what he deserves!"

"A simple plan from a simple mind," Kite stated simply.

Shark growled, "Why don't you shut your -" Beeping started filling the room, with a red light from the alarm. A screen appeared, showing Orbital's worried expression; if that's even possible for a robot.

"Uh, m-master K-K-Kite, there's big tr-trouble," stuttered the bot. "There's a ginormous g-gravitational force directly above the t-t-tower!" I casually stood up as the boys practically jumped.

"It's the Barians," Kite presumed with surprise. I looked up and found no Barian minds up there whatsoever. I couldn't detect anything or anyone up there, much less any of the Barians I've met.

All four of us ran up the stairs to the top of the intact tower. We were quite taken by surprise when we saw what was happening. Clouds were swirling together in an ominous fashion, slightly creeping out the boys. The center of those clouds seemed to be perfectly centered above the tower; more specifically, above Yuma.

"Whoa," Yuma awed. "Check it out." Yuma's key began to give off a brilliant golden glow that caught all of our attention. The key sent out a golden streak of lightning into the center of the clouds, causing a blast much like an Xyz summon in a duel. When the glow faded, we all saw the ship that I remember seeing when I entered the key, coming straight for us! It was going too fast to control itself, accidentally ramming into the tower. We were all blown back but unharmed. With the night sharpening my powers, I could sense the mixed emotions of Yuma's friends, who finally climbed up that huge wall.

"What _is_ it?" Shark asked.

Kite seemed to know that ship. "I saw that inside your golden key." I nodded, recalling my own experience in the key as I saw the memory of when Kite was in the key himself. According to his memories, Kite was a Number Hunter at the time, and it was the first time he so much as mentioned his little brother to someone else.

Yuma seemed to have remembered that, too; it was his first Zexal Morph with Astral. "But what's it doing parked on the roof?" A figure began to materialize in front of us. "Astral," Yuma discovered.

"I have determined our destination," Astral revealed. "The Number card Vector left behind after our recent duel with him. It became a key which activated the airship. It also generated visual coordinates of a specific location."

"What kind of location?" inquired Yuma.

"My guess: Barian World."

"That's where they're holding Ray?"

"I believe so. Vector is telling us to come to him, using this airship. And it is reasonable to assume your friend will be with him."

"Well I say we get this show on the road," Shark smirked eagerly.

"Hold on," Kite stopped. "This sounds way too easy."

"Maybe, or maybe you're scared. Maybe you should hightail it outta here, Kite."

"Will you guys just cut it out!?" Yuma exclaimed. "Maybe it's a trap and maybe it's not. Either way, we gotta try to rescue Ray!"

"I agree," Astral added as he turned back to the ship. "The airship is currently re-energizing. We can depart tomorrow morning." We all agreed, soon leaving Astral with the ship.

I went back home to prepare for the big trip. As far as I could tell, Rio probably wouldn't give her brother a choice about her coming. With Yuma's horrible skills at keeping secrets, he may have already spilled it to his pals. I was looking through my deck - which is rather small, truth be told - when all of a sudden, Shadow mist encircled my deck, and I found myself with several new cards in my deck. I saw that the new monsters were all Dark-attribute Fiend monsters. A light came up from behind me, and I turned to see Ms. Allora, for the first time in over two months. But I noticed that she was dressed like the Lady of Faith, which looked surprisingly realistic.

"Ms. Allora?" I asked in awe.

 ** _Star,_** the spirit looked at me with happiness and peace. **_How wonderful it is to hear your voice again. I have always been the Lady of Faith; I only used that name as a disguise. I've always been there to give you hope, and the strength to pull through your ordeal. I had to wait until this city was ready to welcome you, without Mr. Heartland and his schemes. When the time came, it was I who sent you here. Your new monsters will undoubtedly be kind and loyal to you; even though they are Fiends, they're most certainly_** **not** ** _fiendish._**

I was glad to have found out the truth about my friend's identity. I figured there was something odd about me being unable to read her thoughts when I was younger. Not to mention she seemed to almost flicker whenever I looked at her closely. After she left, I organized my new cards and left to get some rest for tomorrow.

* * *

Very early the next morning, I left out plenty of food for Shadow and left the duel spirits of the house in charge while I was gone. They promised to behave as long as the spirits of my deck didn't get any ideas. Getting some food for the trip - and my cloak, just in case - I went back to Heartland Tower to meet up with the others.

I got there at about the same time as Kite, Orbital, and the Kastle twins. As I expected, we had to wait for Yuma to show.

"Oh hey guys," he greeted as he arrived. "You're here kinda early."

"Hmph," Shark snorted. "No, you're here kinda _late_."

"Good morning, Yuma," Rio grinned. Yuma thought that Rio wasn't coming, but she proved her point she'd be coming with no matter what. Astral came out to notify that the ship was ready for launch. Yuma was eager to get going, but didn't know how to get inside. Astral activated the Flash Transmitter to bring us all inside. But before we were sucked in, Yuma's friends jumped in to come, too. All of them shared Yuma's feelings for wanting to save "Ray," and soon we were all beamed into the airship.

The inside of the ship was pretty cool-looking to all of us. Astral programmed the ship to go to the targeted coordinates prior, and Orbital went straight to the main computer. Astral had Yuma give the order for launch, and once he made the countdown, we were all heading for the location.

Everyone was really impressed by the ship and its technology. It barely made a bump when we were in the dimensional vortex. Tori brought snacks for everyone, and Lillybot gave Yuma duel fuel before we left; he suggested we all eat together. Shark wasn't too fond of the idea of a picnic. When they were about to bring out the food, an alarm went off and the ship started rattling violently, throwing us around. Rio reported of unidentified objects on the starboard side. I detected a huge number of monsters. They were surrounding the airship, and Yuma brought Kite and Shark to deal with them; Rio, Bronk, and I followed as well, me putting on my cloak.

When we got to the outside of the ship, everyone brought out their ace monsters: Utopia, Photon Dragon, Shark Drake, Zerofyne, and Tin Archduke. I also brought out Yinlong to deal with the duel monsters, who has shown she prefers the nickname "Yin". All our monsters lashed out at the giant arsenal, but we noticed they weren't fighting back. We were then interrupted by Orbital, who reported of a black hole we were heading straight for. Everyone was fighting the force of the hole, and I had to do something. Using my powers, I created a force-field around the ship to protect from damage to the hull. But the sheer force was enough to throw us all to the ground, and blackness claimed my eyes.

* * *

I slowly woke up to find myself on a strip of pavement floating in space, between the airship and three strips of floating land. I was still in my cloak, and all of Yuma's remaining friends were still inside the airship. We all seemed to be in a giant dimensional wasteland, which Vector labeled as a place called Sargasso. He considered it our final destination, mentally adding that this would be where his plan would take place. Shark was on my left, Kite was on my right, and Yuma was in the middle.

Yuma was opposing Vector on a giant, split chunk of highway. The purple-cloaked maniac formed a decoy of "Ray" on the ground at his feet, claiming he was resting; that his rest was going to be an eternal one. Yuma appeared really upset, looking over at the body of his so-called "friend". I could sense Yuma's anger towards the Barian, but for literally all the wrong reasons.

On Shark's land strip - which looked to be part of an old bridge - Rio and Bronk weren't far from where Shark was staring down Dumon. The white-cloaked Barian glanced over at me, knowing it was definitely me. He was secretly surprised that I came along. I noticed that Dumon's skin color was more of a lavender tone than gray; the color must've been distorted by the red lights on Barian. But his eyes were indeed storm-cloud gray under the hood of his cloak.

On my other side, Kite recognized the rivaling Galaxy-Eyes Master on their own strip of floating land - which seemed to be some kind of floor. I could tell they were both ready to see which of the two was stronger. Orbital glided down to where his master was on the land strip. Mizar also recognized me, standing on my small bit of land. Out of all three match-ups, the two blonde Dragon Masters seemed to be most ready to duel each other. I wouldn't be surprised if those two came to respect each other someday.

Why Vector never wanted to face me, I'll never guess. The other two Barians seemed almost pleased that I was here. Both of them were grateful for me giving them the fair warning of Vector's plan. Now, we just had to wait for it to happen. I'm guessing that it was Vector who got me on this floating island, far from anyone's earshot. He probably didn't want me to interfere with his plan. All six of the duelists fired up their d-pads, with Dumon and Mizar throwing off their cloaks. Yuma, Shark, and Kite fired up their d-gazers; the left eyes of each Barian turned red.

With three duels happening simultaneously, I probably wouldn't be able to describe them all very well. The only thing I could do was keep an eye on their thoughts from my strip of land. I watched as all three of the boys got an Xyz monster onto their fields. But the moment their turns ended, Vector called for Sargasso's effect. Lightning zapped them from above and gave all three 500 points of damage; all three of them then had 3500 LP each. I found my answer to what happened when I looked into the Barians' minds. If a duelist has or has summoned an Xyz monster, they take 500 points of damage; that would prove troublesome for all three boys.


	19. Until the Time Comes

I could feel the concern in Bronk, Rio, Orbital, and all of Yuma's friends in the ship. I tried to get off of my tiny land-strip, but I felt something tightening and pulling on my ankle. I looked down to see that there was a Baria crystal _shackle_ on my ankle, holding me down; undoubtedly Vector's handiwork. I tried using a Gateway, but the shackle seemed to be created to hold me where I was for the whole and Yuma assumed that Sargasso is a field spell, which Vector confirmed that they triggered. Yuma and Astral didn't look too happy with it, but Kite and Shark seemed to welcome the guaranteed damage. Astral figured their Barian enemies would also take damage, and the plan was pointless. I, however, could see that two of the three Barians were willing and able to use a card to protect them. I could sense Yuma's growing rage towards Vector; Astral warned him to keep his anger in check.

Though Yuma and Shark each set a facedown and had their LP reduced to 3000, Kite activated Starliege Lord Galaxion's ability. Using both OLUs, Kite was able to bring out Photon Dragon directly from his deck. Then he set a facedown, ending his turn and having his LP reduced to 3000 as well.

The Barians each took their draws, bringing out their Over-Hundred Numbers in the process. Vector used Number 104: Masquerade's effect to disable Utopia as well as send the Sargasso Lighthouse spell to the Graveyard, protecting his LP. If you ask me, Masquerade is a perfect name for Vector's Over-Hundred on account of his plan. Dumon brought out the enormous Star Seraph Sentry - who I'd previously met - and also sent Sargasso Lighthouse to the Graveyard. I nearly yelled at him until I heard what he was thinking; to my surprise, it was directed towards me. _I can see that you do not approve of this action, but I must be strong for my comrades. Mizar told me beforehand that he won't use Sargasso's Lighthouse, so as to remain equal with his rival. I must remain as leader until our missing comrades return alive and well. Please understand, young Phantom._ Mizar brought out his Tachyon Dragon, but didn't use the spell card - true to Dumon's thoughts. He let himself take the hit from the field spell, as he wanted to be on a level dueling field with Kite - to duel with honor. I respected the blonde Barian's sense of honor and conscious choice to take the damage, even if he had the very card to stop it.

Once the Barians' turns ended, Yuma was more than ready to bring out Utopia Ray V. Astral didn't want him to, suspecting something strange about Vector's tactics. Yuma was unfortunately blinded by his rage, as he wanted desperately to avenge "Ray" and started arguing with the blue spirit; I could feel their minds clashing. It seemed that Yuma's friends were able to pick up on it, taking it as bad news. The two were far too focused on winning over the other to let me use my telepathy to tell them both it _was_ a trap. Yuma brought out Utopia Ray V, taking the price of 500 damage, bringing his LP to 1600. Using Utopia Ray V's ability, Yuma destroyed Masquerade and dealt Vector damage equal to his Over-Hundred's 2700 atk; he merged with his decoy of "Ray's" body in the following explosion.

In a painfully slow manner, "Ray" struggled to a kneeling position, getting everyone's hopes up. Yuma started running toward him, but suddenly stopped when insane laughing broke out from "Ray". Yuma and his friends looked on in shock as "Ray" struggled to his feet, pulling an explosively strong Barian Battlemorph as he reverted to his true self, showing off the span of his demonic wings.

Vector explained his entire plan to Yuma and the crew, revealing every secret, as he felt no need to hide them anymore. I and the other two Barians looked over at Vector in disgust at his tactics, and unrelenting hatred towards my family that nearly made me relapse hearing people's hatred to Phantoms when I was little. I began to feel very cold, and my powers started flashing through my scars; nevertheless, I kept my head. I already knew most of Vector's plan, and began to feel an abnormal bitterness rising in Astral's mind. He clearly didn't like how Yuma has been keeping secrets from him this whole time.

Yuma's direct attack from his monster was immediately stopped by Vector's Vain Betrayer trap. It negated Utopia Ray V's attack; undid its abilities; sent the "V" cards in Yuma's deck to the Graveyard, sending five more to the Graveyard for each one, and returned Vector 500 LP for each "V" card. Vector regained 2500 LP, sending it back up to 3800. Yuma now only had three cards left to draw; a perfect deck-burning strategy from Vector. If Yuma has no cards to draw at the start of his turn, he automatically loses!

Yuma was really upset that he was deceived in such a manner. He and Astral were blaming themselves for all that had happened. As Yuma kept falling for Vector's mind games, a feeling of betrayal began to come out of Astral. Over on Shark's side, he managed to pull a few countering moves to thwart Dumon and his Sentry. Shark's opponent complimented him for his strategy, comparing Shark to his old friend, Nash. With the Galaxy-Eyes duelists, Kite brought out Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon. In turn, Mizar brought out Neo Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon; much more controlled than last time, as we could see the real, metallic form of the monster.

I was still trying to get the annoying chain off my ankle when a huge disturbance came up from behind me. Still in my cloak, I saw a huge black hole pulling both me and the airship with Yuma's friends into it. Out of desperation, my powers forced through the crystal chain, breaking it apart. I could see Tori and the others manning the ship from inside, Orbital being with them. They were heading out of the hole full-force, but still needed a hand. I used my powers to drag the already stressed airship to safety as the hole closed. Relieved that they were safe, I teleported down to the rivaling dragons and their duelists.

Yuma and Astral were ready to pull their Zexal Morph, but Vector's mind games were getting to Astral, too. Vector's words and Yuma's oblivious betrayal had grown too strong for the little Astral being to handle. Barian power had painfully transformed Astral's light into cruel darkness, turning him half black. The corrupted spirit forced the Zexal Morph, bringing forth a dark-armored morph, radiating a black aura with Astral's total possession.

Seeing that I had to save Yuma and Astral before things got any worse, I quickly turned into shadow and entered the key; too fast for the morph to notice. The scenery had turned a malevolent purple hue where it should've been sky-blue. Not far away, Yuma was standing and looking up at a stone statue of Astral, with a stained glass window where the heart would be. I went over to Yuma, removing my cloak's hood. I touched his shoulder to get his attention, and he spun around to see me. He seemed somewhat relieved and somewhat surprised to see me.

"We should probably get up there," I suggested, looking up at the statue. He nodded in agreement and determination. Without another word, we ran to the statue, hoping to find the Astral being. We split up, dashing up the statue's legs, through staircases and corridors lit by torches of blue flames. But it didn't keep out Yuma's thoughts of sorrow for betraying Astral and keeping secrets from him. Above, I could feel the corrupted entity's hatred to Yuma, and the ceiling started crumbling behind me, and undoubtedly Yuma.

In the next floor, I saw that Yuma had managed to get ahead of me. I was met with a pack of dark gray wolves, radiating a teal aura with glowing red eyes. Yin came out and did away with the aggressive wolves, letting me progress further towards Astral and Yuma. I could feel negativity from Astral and fear from Yuma as I continued going up. I began to hear crashing from one of the upper floors, pushing me to go faster.

By the time I reached the desired floor, I could see the corruption in Astral growing stronger by the second. The spirit conjured tentacles of pure destruction and shot them to me and Yuma. Yuma started running towards Astral, barely slipping past the tentacles. Seeing where he was going, I too started snaking through the attack, making my way to the window. Once close enough, Yuma grabbed Astral's torso; the force pushing them through the shattering window. They started falling from the unbelievable height of the statue as I took my chance. I fired a **Shadow Stream** at the source of Astral's corruption, destroying it. A bright flash erupted from the two that had to have broken the dark Zexal Bond.

* * *

Next thing I knew, I was slammed into the ground back where I was before the extortion occurred. I slowly got up to my feet as Yuma ended his turn. We missed out on what was happening, but from what I could see in their minds, it wasn't good. Yuma was giving off a final attempt to stop Vector's Chaos Number 104: Umbral Horror Masquerade. He used the abilities and effects of several monsters he had in the Graveyard to stop Vector's attack and Sargasso's effect.

On Shark's side, I could hear Shark confirming that Yuma would never give up to the final card. He told Dumon that Vector was in for a "rude awakening." That hit home in Dumon's mind, as he fell silent. Once Yuma took his draw - LP reduced to a measly 25 - he fell in exhaustion, not far from Astral. Their hands laid flat on each other as they joined in a stronger Zexal Morph. The morph's power transformed his Rank-up Magic Limited Barian's Force to Rank-up Magic Numeron Force. Once it was activated, Utopia was evolved into Utopia Ray Victory, also negating Sargasso's effect. Using an OLU, Utopia Ray Victory gained Umbral Horror Masquerade's atk, bringing it to 5800. With a final Rising Sun Double Victory Slash, Vector's Chaos Over-Hundred was destroyed, his LP plummeting to zero.

We were glad that Yuma had won the duel, but Sargasso began to implode on itself. We were transported back to the airship to make our way home, but not before I could direct a thought to Dumon and Mizar: _Maybe one day we will be on the correct sides of this war of worlds. Mizar, hopefully you'll come to respect your rivaling Galaxy-Eyes Master. Dumon, I pray that your missing friends will return to you safe and sound. But until then, you both must try to make sure that Vector doesn't do any more damage than he already has. His solitary schemes might well hasten the undoing of your world._

* * *

On our way home, I managed to tell Kite about the ties between the Arclight and Choseki families. He was quite surprised that I had first met their family when I was barely a month old. He told me what his father said about my family moving away because of Mr. Heartland; I may have been only a year old at the time. He also explained his own family ties with the Arclights, specifically Chris. The way Kite was trained as a Number Hunter to help his younger brother, and that he doesn't have to now that Hart's free.

When we were back home, the airship was parked atop Heartland Tower. I kept to myself the fact that some Barians might not be as bad as they may realize. We were glad that we had won against Vector and his plan of treachery and betrayal. But Astral confirmed that we still had challenges up ahead. Yuma was more than ready to face said challenges head-on. With all of these guys, I was certain that I had found a great group of people to be around.


	20. AN

I surely hope that all of my readers have enjoyed the story. It's the first one I made here, in case you didn't already notice. Please comment, favorite, share, and/or follow if you wish to do so. Who knows, there might be a book two at some point in time. I can hardly wait to get started! I'll let you guys know when it comes out, okay?


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